


The Beauty and the Beast

by The_Author_of_Lemuria



Category: Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: Dimentio Wins, F/M, Implied Kidnapping, It’s Complicated, I’ll add all characters later, Sort Of, The mistery plot is easy to solve, now it’s late
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:20:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 60,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25867315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Author_of_Lemuria/pseuds/The_Author_of_Lemuria
Summary: The Beauty: the picture of innocence, her life would be perfect, if not for the BeastThe Beast: his life is empty and he doesn’t know why. He doesn’t know the Beauty, but desperately needs herWhat will happen when these two meet? Will all worlds survive? Will the Beast’s perfect vision become more than that, or will the Beauty sway him? Will the Beauty continue to view the Beast as such, or will the Beast show his human side?
Relationships: Dimentio & OC, Dimentio/Mimi, Waluigi & Mr. L
Comments: 29
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Let the Show Begin!

The man in green ran down the streets in the city blanketed by darkness, faster, even faster.

A cackling green bean with a strange headgear chased him

“Have fear, hat of green! I have Fury! I will have your ending! Your defeat will be the tasty and crunchy lettuce in my tasty sandwich! The sandwich of revenge”

The green plumber jumped on he roof of a building, thanks to his super jump.

Fawful approached him cackling furiously, only to be swatted by Luigi’s hammer, managing although to shoot him with his laser gun square in the chest, sending the green plumber flying

He landed right on his back in the central square of the town and just laid there for a couple seconds. He had to get up and teleport out of this world. Fawful would be on his tail in some seconds. He was lucky that it was only Fawful that found him, if he was with another member of the Order or even-

“Well, man in green, what can I say, except bravo?”

Luigi, turned slowly, trembling, recognizing the voice

“Luigi” Dimentio adressed him. The mad jester hadn’t changed from the last time Luigi saw him in person, six years before, apart from the golden crown that he wore over his jester hat. He was hovering on the fountain at the center of the square, dozens of clones, distinguishable by the lack of the crown surrounded him, each one of them wielding an electric orb. “Long time no see. How is Count Bleck? I hope well”

Two pure black tentacles shot themselves from under Dimentio cloak and wrapped around Luigi’s for at light speed, effectively costricting him, then lifted him from the ground, at eye level with Dimentio. Luigi tried to not look into the Master of Dimensions’ eyes, but another tentacle forced to substain Dimentio’s gaze, to look into the heterochromatic pits of furious fire.

“I’ll give you the chance of not making this ugly only once, Luigi” hissed Dimentio “Where is the holder of the Pure Hearts?”

The green hero built up what little courage he had “Get lost, Dimentio. I’ll never-”

Luigi never finished the sentence, because all air escaped his lungs when he impacted the ground, where Dimentio had thrown him.

Luigi recognized this as his only chance of getting out of this world, rose back to his feet despite the pain and started running

Dimentio sighed in feigned annoyance mixed with amusement “Oh. It seems that while I was occupied to toy with you like a cat with its prey, I gave you an opportunity to escape. We can’t have that. Waluigi?”

Luigi was stopped in his tracks, lifted by an invisible force off the ground

The lanky purple villain who Luigi had failed to notice before made a swift motion with his hand and Luigi returned where he had started, just in front of Dimentio. Perfect. Another member of the Chaos Order, just what he needed

“Thanks, Waluigi. I’ve always known you to be more reliable than the bean.”

“It wah-s hardly any matter, Lord Dimentio. He hasn’t the strength left for a punch, he didn’t stand a chance against the mighty Wa-”

He was interrupted by Dimentio “You were complimented. Now shut up.”

Dimentio turned again to the plumber. “Sorry. You know how excitable he is”

He put his hand on his chin, faking reflection “Now. Where were we?”

He snapped his fingers “Oh, yes!” The tentacles wrapped around Luigi once more, starting to squeeze him “You were going to tell me where is Mimi”


	2. Attack and Counterattack

Chapter 2: Attack and Counterattack

A little girls trotted down the hallways of the enormous building. She was not only little in age, but also in stature, being smaller than a normal girl her age. She had a light cyan complexion, which contrasted with her eyes, each one of them of a different color, her left one gold, her other red. Her hair, cyan as well, came down her blocky head in two pigtails. She wore a purple sleek dress and a big smile. Why was she smiling? Well, she was smiling because she was happy. No shit Sherlock, thank you. Let me finish. She was happy because she was going to visit her mother.

Her mother was very busy and so she only got to see her once a week. That sucked, but her mother and her uncles and aunties assured her that she was working to defeat the bad guys.

So, it wasn’t her mother’s fault, but the bad guys’, the little girl had reasoned.

Walking down the halls, she saw her favorite uncle. It appeared that he had not seen him yet, so the girl had a devious idea.

With a devilish smirk on her face, the girl approached silently her uncle, who was absorbed in his own thoughts. When she was close enough she jumped on his shoulders

“Hello, uncle Mario!”

The plumber, who had tensed for a second, relaxed. As usual when the little girl was around, a smile found its way on his face “Hello, Mercy. Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see Mama!”

“Well, let me come with you, then. It will only do good to take my mind off things”

“Okay!” The two started walking together, well Mario walked, with Mercy on his shoulders

“What were you thinking about before?”

“Oh, just grown-up things. Luigi hasn’t answered any message”

“Do you think he was captured by the bad guys?”

“Maybe”

“I’m sure uncle Luigi is fine! He is strong, he has a super high jump and his big hammer!”

Mario chuckled “You are right. He has saved himself in countless occasions”

They talked about more trivial things all the way to Mercy’s mother’s room, guarded by Nastasia.

Nastasia nodded to the little girl “Mercy. You are here for the visit?”

“Yes, auntie! how is Mama?”

“She is good. I’ll let you in, k?”

The blue woman opened the door, showing a petite green woman, her hair arranged the same as her daughter, wearing an orange dress. She was sitting on a chair, but as soon as she saw her daughter she smiled and got up taking Mercy, who had run towards her in her arms, hugging her

“Hi there, missy, how are you?”

“I’m fine Mama!” Said the excited little girl

“Hi Mimi” butted in Mario “You all fine?”

“Yes, Mario”

“”What about the Pure Hearts?”

Mimi sighed and eight colorful hearts appeared around her “Here they are. They are still charged”

Mario nodded and smiled “Fine then. Just checking in. I’ll-”

“Mario!” a pink clad figure zoomed in trough the door, holding a small screen

“What’s the matter, Peach?”

“You better take a look at this”

On the screen it could be seen fhe figure of a bound Luigi, held by four chains that restrained his every limb. His green attire was in tatters and blood oozed from some cuts

A figure appeared from the darkness, right to the left of Luigi. Dimentio. Mercy suppressed a growl at the leader of the bad guys, who wanted to destroy all worlds and specifically her mother, that held the only weapons that could stop him, the Pure Hearts.

He was followed by his minions, the members of the Chaos Order, the league of villains that had taken over all worlds under Dimentio. Antasma, the Nightmare King, Lord Fawful, the genial and malevolent inventor, Wario and Waluigi, the Mario brothers eternal rivals.

Only when his Chaos Order was fully at display, did Dimentio speak.

“Greetings, people of all worlds! I think you already know me, Lord Dimentio, and my subordinates. Equally known is our prisoner, Luigi, the younger of the Mario Brothers, one of the Heroes of the prophecy. I shall go straight to the point, like an eager businessman displaying the terms of a commercial deal. I will give the heroes of the prophecy ten days before I pubblically execute the man in green. If you don’t want this to happen, I want the current holder of the Pure Hearts to come to my castle, alone. I think they know where it is. Try attacking the castle and Luigi will be executed. Try to fool me and Luigi will be executed. I will allow one or two of the Heroes to come to discuss terms, since I am not completely without mercy. Ciao!”

Just like that, the screen went black. Mario looked at the screen for another five seconds, then sighed. “We all knew this day was gonna come. Are all the others in the common room?”

“It’s there that they were going when I came here”

Mario nodded “Let’s-a-go there, then. Nastasia, you stay here with Mimi. Mercy... I would advise you to go to our room. This debacle is going to take some time, and your mother will be very busy. I’m sorry”

Reluctantly Mercy nodded and went to hug her mother one last time.

While they were hugging, Mimi wispered something in her ear, as if she didn’t want anyone else to ear “Don’t worry. It will be all right.”

Mercy entered her room, in a completely different mood than the one she had the last time she was inside it. Today was her day with Mama. They were supposed to chat, try on dresses and she would read her a story before going to sleep. Then that big poopy head had barged in and wanted her mother! It wasn’t fair. What they were going to do now?

She wanted to trust her uncles and aunties. She knew that uncle Mario, uncle Blumiere and uncle Bowser were really powerful, but so was uncle Luigi. And if they failed she was going to lose uncle Luigi. Maybe... a plan begin to hatch inside her head

She called forth her shapeshifting powers, that her mother had shown her so many times. Once they disguised as Mario and Luigi to go have fun out of the base, but they were found out and got scolded, which was strange, since adults don’t normally get scolded, right?

She shapeshifted into a Toad, like the many other that patrolled the base.

It was time to fool a god


	3. Meetings

Chapter 3: Meetings

“I do not have understanding!” Screamed Fawful “On the cause of that, I have Fury! Why would the heroes have the giving of Mimi, having her the being of the only menace of your power?”

“As much as I hate agreeing to the insufferable bean, giving us the holder of the Pure Hearts vould bring forvard the end of all vorlds. So vhy vould they do that?” Added Antasma

Dimentio nodded. “You make sense. What about our other members? Do they have anything to say?”

Wario shrugged “I do not really care. I’m already stupid rich right now, I continue fighting just because I can become even richer. I would, however, leave the brainy stuff to the ones that weren’t betrayed and fooled by Bowser, of all people”

Antasma hissed, but was held back by the sight of molten gold orbiting around the evil clone of Mario “What, Batty, scared? Wahahaha”

Dimentio looked upon both of them with a disapproving glare “Wario. Remember what I told you that power was for. Attacking the heroes and any foes, not your teammates in pointless squabbling. Antasma. What Wario said, albeit rude, was true. Let your action speak for you. Bring me more heroes. Have the heroes understood how you discovered Luigi’s location?”

Antasma laughed “SCREOONK! Those fools haff not yet picked up the new ability you granted me, Lord Dimentio. All I had to do was gaze upon their worried nightmares and... make them reality!”

“Good. What about you, Waluigi?”

“Wah! I am content with having Luigi. Will you still give him to me after you made each of us a perfect world?”

“Of course, Waluigi. I also have to congratulate you for your good handling of your telekinesis. Know that you will have your reward. What about our... wildcard? I see you joined our meeting, L”

From the shadows the familiar form of Luigi appeared, but sporting the faimiliar outfit of the Green Thunder “So you noticed, Dimentio”

“I created your new form, Mr L from scratch. I know perfectly how it is and Castle Dimentio is not just a repurposed Castle Bleck. I feel everything within its halls. It is a part of me”

“Of course, mr God. Why do you think that I would help you? You killed me after all”

“I brang you back. We are even. If you feel we aren’t, I hope that your powers are enough to compensate. Count Bleck, or Blumiere, as he calls himself now, created you just to discard you like a broken toy. Revenge would feel good”

“I can see your reasoning, jester. I’m in, just to show everyone I’m not a pushover like Luigi. I will need some materials, of course and not expect my full loyalty. If things get bad, I’m out”

“Of course. Fawful, arrange some materials. Waluigi will show you around” Dimentio cleared his voice “All of you made some good points, expecially Fawful and Antasma. I am pleased that my choice in evil masterminds was good. You have to understand that is very likely that some of them will go rogue even if the majority of them decide to leave Luigi to his fate. And even if they don’t, they will most likely arrange something, that will end either into their end or in the capture of some of them or the finding of their base. I’m almost sure they wiill attack us, one way or another. They think of themselves as heroes, it wouldn’t be like them to leave Luigi to his demise We will use Luigi as bait, like some sugar on a piece of sticky paper used to attract flies to their demise”

Fawful nodded “The plan of the Dimentio that is Lord has almost the probability of succeeding of the plans of Lord Fawful. Those fink-rats will have the trying to free the mustache of green. And then Lord Fawful will have the joy of revenge! Their deception will be-”

“I will handle it.” Interrupted Dimentio. “For too long you and your minions have failed to defeat or even find the heroes. Four years of failure, Fawful. You will have the pleasure of destroying them, with the other members of the Order. The one to arrange this trap will be none other than the Master of Dimensions! The Pleaser of Crowds! The Ruler of All Worlds” He adjusted his crown, made of all the crowns of all the rulers he had dethroned in the six years since his conquest of the Chaos Heart and his subduing of the Purity Heart. “In other words, me, Lord Dimentio. Anyone has objections?”

The only one to raise their hand was Mr L

“Yes, L?”

“Why not simply destroy all worlds? The Purity Heart can no longer harm you, as you told me”

“Exactly. I, and only I, am immune to the effects of the Purity Heart, thanks to the Dark Prognosticus. The Void is, however, not. The contact between the Void and the Pure Hearts has consequences that are not narrated even on either Prognosticus. It could range from the annihilation of both Hearts to the destruction of all worlds, without coming back. I prefer to play safe”

“You all have your assignments. Fawful, return to the Mushroom Kingdom and the Beanbean Kingdom and continue to drive out any supporter of the heroes. Antasma, are the Pi’illos still subdued? What about the Zeekeeper?”

“The restrainings you have put them have proved to be most effective. They are and vill remain unable to do anything”

“Good. Here’s your reward” A black and spiraled stone appeared in front of Antasma. It was full of cracks on its surface, like it was crudely glued back together

“The-”

“Dark Stone. I have put together the Nightmare Chunks with the power of the Chaos Heart. It is however mostly instable. Too many wishes will probably destroy it beyond repair. I will look into restoring it to its former glory. Let it power, in the meantime”

Antasma bowed “Your trust vill not be disappointed, Lord Dimentio” with these words Antasma disappeared into a puff of smoke, followed by Fawful, that disappeared through his handheld portal

“Wah-t about me, Lord Dimentio?”

“As I told before, you will show this facility to Mr L and assure that he is ready for battle”

“It wah-ll be done” Waluigi, followed by Mr L, took his leave as well, using the door of the room.

“Wario”

“What?”

“I have created a magic amulet that will be able to block dimensional travel towards and from Castle Dimentio to the ones that aren’t a member of the order. It can’t however be in the dimension it blocks. How secure is your vault?”

“Perfectly secure, my lord. A thief knows all the ways to get into treasure rooms and I am one. The only way to enter is to pass on my dead body, I have sealed all other ways” he chuckled “And that’s after facing my army and Goldie”

“Good. Here” Dimentio passed him a little mask, identical to Dimentio’s, inside a ball of glass “The only one that can activate or deactivate it is me. It is however quite fragile. Do not allow the heroes to get it”

“As said before, it is impossible for them to penetrate my vault”

“I hope so. For your sake”

“We can’t just leave Luigi!” Screamed Peach “He would try to rescue any of us!”

“I have to agree with Peach here” Mario added “As much as I know that is dangerous and that we can’t allow the Pure Hearts and Mimi to fall into the hands of Dimentio, I can’t leave my bro, or anyone else, to die”

“That is understandable” said Blumiere “But we have to set some things we aren’t going to do”

“We’re listening” grunted Bowser

“We’re not going to give either Mimi or the Pure Hearts to Dimentio. That would bring our doom”

“That’s reasonable” agreed Peach

“We aren’t going to attack without doing some negotiations first. Better to see what we can obtain without violence first. And neither we will attack duing them, as Dimentio would undoubtly capture our negotiator. And then we would found ourselves as before.”

“As much as I love a good chunking, the Count has a point, lads. First we do the talking, then the chunking” O’Chunks cracked his knuckles “I’ll show that mad jester what a good chunkin’ means! I’ll introduce him again to First Jr. and his pal, Slappie!”

“Another rule we need to follow is to try at all costs not to engage Dimentio. He will be probably guarding Luigi, but at all costs we need to not battle him. I hate to admit it as well, but right now he cannot be defeated. The barrier of the Chaos Heart cannot be breached, in his case not even by the Purity Heart. Although...”

“Although?” Mario questioned

“It was just an idea that Nastasia suggested me, some time ago. Both its effectiveness and its morality are questionable. It will be a last resort. The last rule is never to reveal the existance neither the truth about Mercy. Dimentio’s wrath would destroy us all”

“Agreed” nodded Mario “that secret should never be told to either Dimentio nor Mercy. About the negotiations, I volunteer to go”

“Absolutely not!” Screamed Blumiere “I will go. You and Luigi are our powerhouses. We can’t afford to lose you both. I will go”

“Blumiere...” Timpani tried to convince him, but was quickly met with his pleading eyes

“Timpani... You know how much I loathe the idea of leaving you, but I created the Chaos Heart. This whole situation is my fault”

The human nodded “Go then. Try your best to return”

“Dimentio has promised not to harm the ambassadors, but he could betray us” agreed Mario “But he is one. I think its safer both of us go. He could stop only one of us, the other could escape and possibly free Luigi”

Blumiere reluctantly “We’ll shall go like you advise, hero. Tomorrow morning we will go have a parlay with... him”


	4. Similarities and Clashes

Chapter 4: Similarities and Clashes

“-And here our tour ends. These are the rooms. Lord D told me that they where mostly unchanged, so you should be familiar with them”

“Good. All changed so much” Mr L said, gesturing to the green halls “I’m not sure if I like it”

“Wah! True!” Waluigi laughed “Green! I hate that color. You?”

“Not as much. It just reminds me of my other self. The weak-”

“Pathetic, cowering and useless one!” Waluigi ended, only then realizing he interrupted L “Sorry! I don’t really like him”

“It’s okay, it is mostly my beef with Luigi too.”

“Wah-t about we have a good tennis match? I had a court built in my room”

Mr. L shrugged “Sounds good” he moved to open a door to one of the rooms absent-mindedly

“No!” Waluigi stoppped him with a blow of his tennis racket on the wrist

“Ow! What was that for, you no-good purple idiot?”

“Wah! Who is the purple idiot? I just saved you from Dimentio’s ire”, you copycat bufoon!”

“What did you just call me? And why would Dimentio get angry?”

“That’s the room of your ex-comrade Mimi. Dimentio specifically ordered us to keep the hell out. He says it’s to leave it as it is. To study her. After all, she is the one that possesses the Pure Hearts.”

“How did that happen?”

“No idea. I wanted to ask you the same thing. Weren’t you one of the ones that wanted to destroy the worlds?”

“I was killed by Dimentio before the heroes arrived and defeated the Count, only to be defeated by Dimentio”

“Ah. Well... wah-nt to make a bet?

“Bet? Against me?” Mr. L laughed “I’m gonna win, no matter what, you junior minion!”

“You are the last arrival here.But anyways I’ll win”

“You thinks so? Bet’s on!”

“Ah! Who loses our match of tennis will ask Dimentio!”

“That’s all? Be ready to question that psychopath!”

“I like you! Wah! But It’s me the Great Waluigi, that will win! Wahahaha! Wah!”

When Mercy arrived in front of Castle Dimentio she was surprised beyond measure. Uncle Bumiere had showed him how the castle was when Dimentio took it (that thief!), but let’s say... Dimentio surely was a good designer. The castle was twice its previous height, with thin towers that looked like they belonged more in a cathedral , the house of a god, than in a castle. Its windows were numerous and showed the great height of its halls. All over gothic arcs decorated the castle-cathedral. Everything was different shades of green, apart from the great glass window on the mighty central tower around which everything was placed, that sported Dimentio‘s ever smiling mask, his hands clutching the Chaos heart. She approached the great door, assuming the shape of her mother. At the entrance of the castle, a dozen of Abodimentios stood guard. They were half black half white mannequins, void of every characteristic. They were the souls of the inhabitants of the few destroyed worlds, the one just bordering Castle Dimentio. They pointed at her with their spears

Then one of them, a sword on its hip and with a mouth in the shape of a line, talked

“You Lady Mimi? You holder of Pure Hearts?”

“Y-yes?”

The abodimentio nodded mechanically and all the guards returned to their previous positions.

“Do Lady Mimi wish for accompanying?”

“No!” She cleared her voice “I mean I’ll find my way”

The abodimentio nodded “As you wish” it raised an hand and the doors opened

Mercy entered Castle Dimentio, stopping just one second thinking of asking where they kept Luigi, decided against it and continued. She was in

Dimentio sat on his throne, a projection that displayed the map of all worlds, then sighed. He swiped his hand and a tridimensional holographic image of Mimi appeared, frozen in her pose and surrounded by all of other Count Bleck’s minions, Dimentio included, and Count Bleck himself. It was an old photo, when he was still pretending to be nothing more than a minion

He got up and floated right next to the green girl. With his hand he caressed her cheek, a trained motion that made care not to disrupt the light construct, his smile ever present “Soon. Soon”

A snap of his hands and the projection disappeared. What was wrong with him? One of his schemes was near fruiction and he felt melancholic nonetheless. Even the idea of laying waste upon a dimension didn’t give him the same sadistic glee anymore

_It’s the girl_

The thought came from the Chaos Heart. Dimentio nodded ‘Maybe. Most probably. I have not seen her for some time’

_Lay waste to all worlds. Destroy them all. Then make your perfect world_

Dimentio’ smile faltered for a second ‘No. Out of question’

_Why? You know what will happen even if the Pure Hearts collide with the Void. You can lie to your minions, but not to me_

‘What will happen would render my perfect world meaningless, for me. I will not destroy all worlds, not right now’

The Chaos Heart roared _You are weak! You want to make ME weak! You esnare me within these bonds that limit my power_

Dimentio sneered ‘I made you invincible. Stop complaining. The end of all worlds will happen when i decide so. It’s final’

An abodimentio appeared in the throne room. It was the commander of the guards, one of the few that had a voice “Lady Mimi arrived. Here in castle. Refused accompanying”

Dimentio eyes widened a fraction of a micron “Mimikins? Here? That is... impossible. Or unexpected” But it was true. He could feel a presence similar to her roaming the halls

Dimentio’s grin widened as he floated even higher ‘See? It is even nearer than I expected’

_We shall see_

“Finally something we agree on. Alert all guards. Seal all gates. She is here”

The tennis ball moved just too fast for the Green Thunder, hitting the ground and zooming in the distance

“Wah! Victory is mine! Wahahaha!” Waluigi laughed

Mr. L threw his racket in frustraction “Just sheer luck”

“Wah-t? I beat you fair and square! You’re just a sore loser!”

Mr. L seethed with anger, but shrugged nonetheless “Next time I’ll destroy you, mark my words!”

“Next time? Wah-t about now? I’ll crush you!”

“Not now. I have to work on my Brobot”

“Wah-t’s a Brobot?”

Mr. L beamed “My greatest creation! The tool I used against the heroes of the Light Prognosticus!”

Realization dawned in Waluigi eyes “Do you mean the big Luigi head?”

“That one. Why?”

“I may have made some... improvements”

Mr. L freezed “WHAT! My Brobot!” He screamed, rocketing out of the room, followed by Waluigi

“What did you do!” Mr. L roared when he saw what remained of his Brobot. Beneath the enormous head stood a robotic skeleton, a shell for a body still in construction, disproportioned and far too small, the rockets coming out of its back, like a jetpack. The worst change was however to the head, changed to mirror Waluigi’s

“Wah-t do you mean? I like it!”

“It’s my Brobot! Change it back!”

“It’s my Wahbot! Finders keepers, losers weepers!”

With an animalistic screech Mr. L launched himself on Waluigi, lighting in his hands

Mercy was walking down the halls, still sporting her mother’s form. All was going good, so far. She had found a couple of dead ends, but the castle layout wasn’t so different from the one Uncle Blumiere showed her. At this rate she would free Uncle Luigi in no-

A form collided with her at high speed, sending her tumbling to the ground

“What...”

“Mimikins!” A voice she knew far too much resonated. She looked down and immediatly regretted it.

Lord Dimentio, the baddest of the all the bad guys was hugging her, holding her off the ground, rubbing his head on her cheeks. He was-

She slapped him. The attack didn’t harm him in any way, protected as he was by the Chaos Heart barrier. For some reason, he recoiled the same, leaving her and making her butt hit the ground

“Ow! What was that for, Mimikins?”

Mercy got up on her feet, confused by the situation, but angry nonetheless. Dimentio was supposed to want to kill her mother, not hug her and hug her! “You kidding me? You kidnapped Luigi! You want to destroy all worlds! You were hugging me!”

Dimentio inclined slightly his head to his left, in confusion “Mimikins? Are you okay? You’re not making any sense”

Mercy sputtered in anger “I am? You aren’t making any sense! You are a bad guy! And you were also rubbing your head on my face! I have every right to be angry!”

Now Dimentio was understanding even less. “I don’t understand you, Mimikins. Yes, maybe the death menace on Luigi was a eensy teensy tiny bit too much, but it was to put pressure on the heroes! About the worlds, you wanted it too, so that doesn’t make any sense” he smiled wrily “And, I remember doing much more than some hugging last time we were together”

Red invaded Mercy’s face, part for embarassment, part for pure anger. Mercy decided. She was going to destroy this bufoon. He didn’t have the right to talk like that about her mother! She snapped her neck like her mother had shown her and attacked Dimentio relentlessly, shooting barrage of rubies after another

Dimentio just took every attack without even faltering, the barrier of the Chaos Heart protecting him from anything

What was going on with Mimikins? She was behaving herself so strangely!

Maybe she could have lost her memory? Possible, or it could have been the work of Nastasia’s hypnosis. It wasn’t likely however that they would just launch Mimi like that in front of him, just making her not remember him. What would they gain?

Deciding to go to the bottom of this, Dimentio snapped his fingers, imprisoning Mercy into an indestructible box, she reverted back to her human-like form

“Mimikins. What you’re doing is... perplexing, to say the least, at the point of making me doubt wheter you are in control of your mental faculties. Forgive me for this”

This was maybe one of the most impressive spells he had ever crafted. Its creation had been incredibly taxing, and it required a not indifferent amount of power, which would have almost completely dried him up, if not for the Chaos Heart’s power. A dispelling spell. Able to just cancel all magic inside of a small area. Useful to remove curses, camouflage and hypnosis

His hands traced invisible lines, then he was blinded by a cyan flash from inside the box

In some seconds his eyesight returned to him and the firt thing he saw was a figure, laying still on the ground where Mimi was before.

His smile dropped to a mortified look. What had he done! Mimi was a shapeshifter, she had probably magic flowing inside her, erasing that, albeit temporarily, could have terrible aftereffects!

“Shit, shit!” He dispelled the box and kneeled beside the figure, noticing two things: she was smaller and her complexion had mutated to a light blue. She looked very much like Mimi, but was undeniably not her.

Another shapeshifter? They existed? He assumed that Mimi was unique, but obviously that wasn’t the case

Did the heroes enlist her (because she was presumably a she) to fool him? Improbable, they wouldn’t send a child against a god and she looked very much like a child-

She couldn’t have more than six years.

She looked very much like Mimi

Too much to be a coincidence

Her skin...

Impossible...

Was she...

He took her into his arms and teleported Waluigi right in front of him

“-the hell a-wah-y from me, you- wah?” The purple slender villain exclaimed.

Dimentio didn’t register Waluigi’s confusion, neither his singed jumpsuit, but snapped to gain his attention “Waluigi. I want the castle on defensive alert. Inform all members of the order that tomorrow morning’s meeting is delayed, to tomorrow noon. We’ll have luncheon together. Ready two abodimentios to guard the door to Mimi’s room. All clear?”

Without even waiting for an answer, Dimentio teleported out of the room


	5. Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner and Questions

Chapter 5: Dinner

Mercy slowly woke up. She had the weirdest of dreams. She had crawled into Castle Dimentio and-

That line of thought stopped as she realized that:

One, this wasn’t her bed. This was was a large, queen sized bed of a bright pink that nearly hurt her eyes.

Two, this wasn’t her room either. The walls were coated in various shades of pink, of such an overblown girlishness only her mother would be capable of

Three, Dimentio’s masked face was standing only an inch from her face

“Hello there, sweety. Slept well?”

She shrieked and jumped out of bed, only stopping when she ended up in front of one of the wallsof the room

Dimentio chuckled “How cute. Like your mother! Sorry if I startled you”

Mercy was confused, but that was normal. Dimentio, the lord of the bad guys, had asked her if she slept well, instead of torturing her or flailing her alive. All that, after she had tried and failed to make a fool out of him

“You must be quite hungry! It’s almost dinnertime. Would you like to eat?”

Mercy almost declined, but then her traitorous stomach growled, reminding her of the lunch she had skipped. She relunctantly nodded

Dimentio clasped his hand together “Wonderful, wonderful!” He snapped his fingers and they flipped into an enormous dining room, with an exceptionally long table, two plates with respective cutlery at each end. Dimentio floated to an end as Mercy walked to the other.

“Bonne appetit” With that Dimentio snapped his fingers and two plates of a green soup appeared.

Mercy wasted no time and started wolfing down her food, while Dimentio ate his soup more slowly, almost absentmindedly, observing the little girl

When, just in some seconds Mercy had finished her soup finished everything in her plate, He laughed “Why, you have such a great appetite, like a pup that has been left on his own and is being fed by a compassionate hunter”

Mercy gulped and adjusted her posture “Why are you doing this?”

“This what, little one? You’ll have to be more specific”

“This! Why are you being nice to me? You should be holding me hostage, not offering me dinner! It makes no sense!”

Dimentio chuckled, with a most upsettling laugh “Oh, my poor, naive child. Who has said” he added in a frigid and threathening tone “That you are not an hostage?”

Then he returned to a more playful voice “Kidding, kidding. I am doing this as you are not my enemy. The heroes are”

“I’m one of them”

“Trust me, you are not. At least, I don’t consider you enough of a threat to count you as such and I believe you are just swayed. Tricked by a partial version of my story, little... I don’t believe you have given me your name”

“It’s Mercy”

“Mercy, Mercy” He rolled it on his tongue “I like it”

“T-thanks?” She cleared her voice “And what do you mean with ‘a partial version of the my story’?”

“Simple” Dimentio snapped his fingers and both his half eaten soup and Mercy’s empty bowl disappeared, leaving place to a nice steak “I believe that you’ve been fed lies, like an infant is fed spoonful of chemically infused baby food”

“That’s not true!”

“Prove it then” Dimentio said while cutting his steak “Tell me your truth, Mercy”

“Will you leave me go? If I do so?”

“If it’s true, I’m afraid so. I won’t even battle you, though I think we would have to interrupt this lovely dinner”

“Okay. Uncle Blumiere” Dimentio winced just slightly at the mention, out of spite “wanted to destroy all worlds and, helped by uncle Chunks, auntie Nastasia, you and my mom, tried to use the Chaos Heart to destroy all worlds. My other uncles, uncle Mario, Uncle Luigi, uncle Bowser, auntie Timpani and auntie Peach tried to stop them. They finally stopped Uncle Blumiere, but then you tried to kill him and took the Chaos Heart. Uncle Blumiere and auntie Timpani’s love recharged the Pure Hearts and tried to stop you. It didn’t work and...”

“Well said. May I move some criticism to your story?”

He raised one finger “Why didn’t the Pure hearts work? They should have left me powerless, but...” he tried to stab his hand with his steak fork, only to have it repelled “As you can see...”

Another finger “If the heroes were right in front of me, why didn’t I annihilate them there and then? I obviously care about getting the Pure Hearts, so why didn’t I do it then?”

Another finger “Speaking of them, why did your mother get all the Pure Hearts? The heroes had them”

Another finger “And finally, if Mimi’s your mother, who is your father?” He chuckled “A good question. I think most of our audience is wondering that as well”

He snapped again, dispelling all the food and the table “Can you answer to these questions?”

Mercy was about to say something, but stopped

“As I thought. Don’t worry. You’ll have all the answers, if I have a say about it”

He snapped his fingers one last time and the girl went back to Mimi’s room

“And trust me, I have”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, a bit of a short one. Next one is bigger, I promise


	6. Old Friends, Old Memories

Chapter 6: Old Friends, Old Memories

_Are you really going to halt all of your plans for a stupid girl?_

‘Don’t call stupid our guest’ Dimentio adressed the Chaos Heart ‘It is rude’

_I don’t care. Are you?_

‘Maybe. And I forbid you to do anything about it’

_You are unfit to be my wielder. Love corrupted you. She corrupted you_

Dimentio sent a jolt of magic to hurt the Chaos Heart ‘Don’t talk of her that way. I dislike it. Do you promise?’

_I shall have my revenge, you know_

‘I’m so scared, right now. Do you promise?’

_I do_

‘See? Wasn’t that hard’

If it had a mouth, the Chaos Heart would have laughed. He couldn’t do anything... but someone else could

Outside of the castle, in the Void’s core, a dark blue shape appeared, its job and its reward already clear

‘Blumiere...’

Mercy turned and twisted in her bed. It wasn’t like this she expected to end her day. A ‘guest’ in Castle Dimentio. She could already imagine her uncles, aunties and her mother freaking out. She was stupid, stupid, stup-

“What are you thinking about?”

She suppressed a startled scream, not without difficulty. “Dimentio”

“Oh, bad mood?”

“Why are you here?”

“I thought you were sleeeping and I wanted to watch you” Upon Mercy’s weirded out face, the jester laughed “I don’t sleep, so I occupy my nights with something else. But I have watched L and Waluigi sleep countless times before and I read milions of times my favorite book so...”

Mercy beamed “You have books?”

“Mostly magic books and the Dark Prognosticus. Not fit for you. I do have however, my favorite novel. You like to read?”

Mercy nodded “I like to, but I prefer when my mother reads to me”

“Would you like me to read to you?”

“No!”

“Ah, right, all the evil overlord stuff. Understandable” he produced a pink book with an opened locket and put it on the nightstand near Mercy “Hope you like it” just like that, he flipped out.

Mercy picked up the book and read the title

“Mimi’s Diary” was scribbled on the top. Added in a different ink in big characters was another line “DIMENTIO KEEP OUT”

This... was her mother’s diary

Was it authentic? Did Dimentio gave it to her to show her the ‘truth’?

It wasn’t like it was gonna hurt her, she thought as she opened the little book

_Dear Diary, You won’t believe what happened me today! An hottie with a white cape (A CAPE!) asked me if I wanted to work with him! Well, it was for him, but STILL!! He was so nice and he looks so good! He said that we’re going to destroy all worlds to make our perfect worlds!! That’s weird I thought, but he said it was all true. He asked if I wanted to come to his castle (YES, HE HAS A CASTLE!!) and I said yes! Turns out there were already some others ‘minions’. There was a strong burly guy (he said his name was O’Chunks or something that looked like he had muscle for brains, he is... nice, but not boyfriend material. He is more like a teddy bear. A big, burly one . He has an obvious crush on the other one, a blue skinned secretary that has a crush on Count Bleck (that’s the hottie’s name). She looked nice and friendly, but the Count is mine_

The first entry ended there. Her mother was surely boyfriend hunting, back in the day. No traces of Dimentio, still. Her mom had written of uncle Chunks, auntie Nastasia, even of uncle Blumiere (though at the time he went by Bleck), but nothing about the treacherous minion. Maybe she needed to go further, maybe he joined later.

She flipped some pages of knowing the other minion of Count Bleck better, obsessing about the Count, buying some clothes, more obsessing about the Count, even more obsessing about the Count (was Blumiere her father? It would explain her cyan skin) and there it was

_Dear Diary_

_today something weird happened. A masked guy with a jester hat barged in without invitation and begged the Count to join. He looked in his big book (dark... whatnow?) and said it wasn’t mentioned anything about someone like him. I asked the Count if he was sure and told him that I liked him, part to get him to be a little jealous, part because he reminded me of... someone, even if I can’t remember who. Then the weirdest thing happened. He smiled to me. He was smiling even before, but I felt that he was smiling specifically at me then. He was cute. The Count checked better and siad that he could stay. He thanked me with a small bow._

She flipped the page

_Dear Diary_

_I hate him so much! He stole you and read my secrets out loud! In the common room! Screw what I wrote before! I’m so lucky the Count wasn’t passing. He is a jerk. When I asked for you back, he started cackling and floating away, until he got tired and gave me you. I hope he never finds you again_

So he was insufferable back then. Wonderful. She was glad she kept her diary at home, even if she didn’t have big secrets.

She continued to read of Dimentio’s pranks and shenanigans growing in pettiness until she reached a bookmarked page.

The bookmark that she found was a thin layer of gold, laminated at the top with opaque glass-like substance, that formedthe shape of Dimentio’s mask. On the back an engraving.

_Many to wield it will try_

_Only the woman in green and that who she holds with her_

_Won’t have their efforts awry_

_This is how it will be, how it is, how it were_

What did that mean, Mercy couldn’t tell. It looked like a prophecy, all prophecy were in rhyme. All good ones

However what was ‘it’? She knew that the woman in green was probably her mother, so maybe the Purity Heart? She knew that there was a book of phrophecies about it, the only thing able to stop the Chaos Heart and Dimentio, its invincible owner. That would explain why her mother had the Pure Hearts. But who was ‘that who she holds with her’? Could it be... her father?

She could ask those questions to Dimentio. He... seemed awfully open. He might attempt to feed her lies, but it was better than her uncles and aunties. They always told her it was ‘a story for another time’ or ‘a tale for when she was older’. She liked that about him. Actually he didnt seem all that bad...

He killed people! She reminded herself. He kidnapped uncle Luigi! He wants to destroy all worlds! He was not nice! He was just trying to trick her, like he did before.

With that in mind, Mercy carefully put down the diary and drifted to sleep, exhausted.

Just then, the Master of Dimentions teleported silently into the room. Moving quietly like only someone able to float was able to do, he approached the sleeping girl. He took the book and clutched it to his chest, like if he was giving it a hug.

‘Don’t worry, Mimi. I’ll take care of your daughter’ he thought as he teleported the book out of the room.

He gave a gaze to the sleeping girl, his mind taking into account her blue complexion once more.

He stroked her delicately, like if she was made of crystal “Don’t worry” he whispered “It won’t be long. All pieces are coming together, even if you were most unexpected, my dear”

Dimentio took down his mask, that retained its static smile, the room so dark that even if someone was there wouldn’t be able to distinguish his features.

The magician gave a light kiss on Mercy’s head, then slid his mask on again.

He landed, his back on the enormous bed, soft as every night he had spent unable to find sleep, thinking about her.

Now, with a piece of her just next to him, nestled in a way his body wasn’t touching her, out of fear she would wake up, his mind drifted to a peaceful, quiet world, where no nightmare came to haunt him


	7. Diplomacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today is my birthday! So you all get a gift!  
> Dimentio confronts the heroes!  
> A misterious figure makes his first move!

Chapter 7: Diplomacy

Dimentio opened his eyes. He had slept so wonderfully! He felt like he could face the heroes all on his own! Well, that was true in any case, but still.

A quick glance to his side confirmed that yes, it wasn’t a cruel dream. She was still here.

He got up without a sound and teleported right to his throne room, where he found his butler, an abodimentio extraordinarly developed, sporting a mouth, a nose and a moustache, half black half white. He sported a tail-coat with the same two colors of his body and a monocle where his left eye would be. He, Dimentio had found, retained some memories of his past life, as an underpaid butler for some rich snob. He had been more then happy to have a new chance at life and Dimentio had a sneaking suspicion that the acceptance of his new form was the reason he was so similar to his original form.

“Geralt” Dimentio adressed him

“Master Dimentio, I finally found you!” The butler greeted him without showing emotion, his aplomb untouchable

“More like the other way around, Geralt. In any way, I thank you for your concern”

“It is my duty, master. Would I be correct to assume it regards our new guest?”

“As always, Geralt. Like a blind prophet, even without eyes you see everything. So, yes, our new guest was the reason I was gone all night. I slept by her side like a baby”

“I find this to be good for you. You really need some good sleep”

Dimentio laughed “Only you can worry about an invincible, immortal and omnipotent being. Were you searching me for something, other that to care for me like an overbearing mother?”

“Well, yes. It appears that the heroes have sent two ambassadors. I have them in the waiting room. I’ve obviously blocked every door with the portal spell you taught me, master Dimentio”

Dimentio nodded and checked the waiting room, seeing two forms, the two ambassadors, in it. One of them tried going out of the room with one of the two doors of the room, only to come out the other one, as before inside the waiting room.

“Perfect. Obtimal job. Who are they?”

“Mario and Count Bleck”

“Well, I’m impressed! Both their leaders came. Probably they want to cover eachother out in case I try something, like little fishes that swim together in fear of a great white shark”

“What shall be done about them? What shall I say to the guards?”

“To stand down. There will be no attack on ambassadors. Go fetch a bottle of champagne, the good one, and three glasses, the fine ones”

Geralt bowed “Your bidding shall be done, master”

“Excellent. Dismissed”

Dimentio teleported directly behind the two heroes

“-like the doors are linked.” Blumiere was pondering, while Mario was examinating one of the doors.

“Good morning, Mario! Hello, Count! I asked to our common green friend how you were, but got only pained screams. Such a rude fellow, ain’t him?”

Mario jumped up in the air, while Blumiere, more used to Dimentio’s sudden appearances, simply turned and scowled at him. While Mario hadn’t changed at all since the last time he saw him, Bleck had. The red fire of his eyes, a consequence of the Chaos Heart’s power, had died down, leaving place to a golden yellow “Dimentio. It has certainly been some time since we met”

“Quite indeed! I missed you just of few seconds when you last came here and stole what was mine” Dimentio replied, keeping his smile all the time “About that, do you like what I did with the place? I think it is much better!”

Blumiere scoffs “We’re not here to talk of that, Dimentio”

“It is perfect, a better version of what it was. I could do this to all worlds. Make them better, perfect”

“You will not destroy all worlds, Dimentio. We won’t allow you” butted in Mario

“Oh, sorry Mario. I almost forgot you were there. You’re so short it is easy”

Mario was about to reply something, when Geralt teleported in, a tray with three flutes already filled in one hand and a bucket of ice with an opened bottle in the other “The drinks you requested, master”

“Thanks, Geralt” said Dimentio, snatching a flute of champagne “Put everything on that table. Then you’re free to go”

The abodimentio bowed “As you wish, master” he did as ordered and flipped away

Dimentio sipped some of the golden liquid “Wonderful taste. It’s your favorite Count. I have discovered quite a passion with it, so I ordered to keep some in stock”

Blumiere growled “Do you feel no shame Dimentio? Killing and enslaving an innocent soul like that?”

Dimentio chuckled “Oh, Bleck, always to the point. To answer your question, no, I don’t. Geralt quite likes his job”

“What about the others? What about all those you killed?”

A crack appeared on the stem of Dimentio’s glass, just underneath his hand “Oh, are you giving me the lecture, Bleck? You, who wanted to destroy all worlds and kill everyone, including your loyal minions?” He took a large sip of his wine “And people think I am the treacherous trickster and you an hero”

Mario jumped to Blumiere’s rescue, quite literally, as he positioned himself before the member of the tribe of darkness “It’s not that, Dimentio! Unlike you he has changed! He is better, now”

Thin, hairline cracks spread to the rest of the stem “Has he, little red plumber? Are you sure he wouldn’t do the same, if he lost his love again?”

 _Love. Such a meaningless emotion_ , resonated the Chaos Heart’s voice inside Dimentio’s head

Blumiere tried to speak, but Mario interrupted him “Maybe. But at least he knows something you don’t surely have”

The cracks spread even more, reaching the bowl and the foot, some wine leaking trough them.

“Oh? And what is that? Amuse me, hero”

“He knows what truly means to love someone. What he did, he did for love. You-”

Dimentio’s tightening grip finally managed to destroy the crystal flute, pieces of it scattering through the room, as if an explosion had occurred inside of it. But that wasn’t where Blumiere and Mario’s eyes where drawn upon. No they were fixated upon Dimentio’s mask, surrounded by a dark aura that resembled a dark maelstrom.

On that mask, its characteristic smile was nowhere to be found. In place of it, an animalistic hateful snarl, fiery eyes fixated onto the heroes in an expression that was pure rage itself. The King of All Worlds spoke, his voice deep, demonic, threatening “Don’t. You. Dare. Speak and I can assure you, your ends will start now and end with those of whoever you have ever loved, who will die painfully by my hand”

The remaining two flutes shook and exploded. Deep cracks formed in the walls as reality was bent by the power of the Chaos Heart.

Then it ended. The walls restored themselves, the flutes returned like they were and a smile returned onto the Dark Lord’s mask

“After all” he continued with his normal voice as he sat down on a comfy looking chair. “We’re here to talk about the man in green. Did you think about my offer?”

“Out of question. We were hoping we could find something else”

“My hands are tied here. You could all surrender to me or just give me Mimi, even without the Pure Hearts. Any other way...” he poured himself some other champagne “let’s say Luigi woud really go insane. He would... lose his head! Ahahaha” he laughed at his own joke, as Blumiere and Mario tensed with anger

“Do you have no mercy?” snarled Mario

“Quite the opposite, my little red friend. I have her”

Blumiere and Mario freezed “W-what?” Mario asked

“Mercy. Mimi’s daughter, if the staggering resemblance isn’t just a casuality. I also have a nagging suspicion of who might be the father”

“I’m sorry, but I have no idea who-”

“Let’s not lie to ourselves, Bleck. I have already questioned her. What you did, lying to her, is not right. Tell Mimi I’ll make sure that Mercy knows exactly what happened six years ago. You’re dismissed”

A door opened in the wall, leading straight to the main gate. Dimentio teleported out. All needed to be perfect, in order for his plan to succeed

‘I failed you. I won’t fail your daughter’

Fawful sat upon his throne, in his palace, built on the ruins of the old Beanbean Castle. Fawful still cherished the memory of when, with the help of the order, he had conquered his old home, remembered how he forced that fink-rat Peasly to his knees, how Dimentio had defeated the Queen. They were his best memories, amongst with those of his past with Cackletta. Right now, he had won. He was victorious. He ruled the Beanbean Kingdom, the Mushroom Kingdom and the Koopa Kingdom

“But you don’t feel accomplished, don’t you?”

Fawful jumped out of his chair, his newest ray gun pointed in the direction from which the voice came “Have the revealing of yourself! Guards! Have the coming in the place which is here!”

A head rolled from behind a column, the head of a beanbean soldier. A loud laugh resonated, haunting and dark “I think your guards will be late”

“You have the wanting of what, fink-rat! Have the knowing that I have the being part of the Order of the Chaosing, lead by-”

“Oh, no, no. I have no ill intentions, of any sorts. Quite the opposite, if you will”

“Have the exiting of the person which is yourself from the shadows that have the coating of you!”

“Fine” The newcomer stepped into the light. He was completely covered by a black cape with an hood that covered his facial features in shadow. He floated a few centimeters over the ground. The only thing coming out his cloack was his right hand, carrying an ebony scepter with a scarlet red gem on top of it and twirling it into the air

“Like this is like you never had the steppping out of the shadows, you have the obscuring of yourself! Have the lowering of your hood!”

“I am afraid I can not do that. My master forbade it to me. If you accept my identity staying concealed, I can give you the means to understand your inner turmoil, and to eliminate it.”

“All the righting. Have the talking and giving”

“If I remember well, you’re Lord Fawful, right? Lord of villainy, preferred pupil of the Great Cackletta and the new overlord”

“You have the rightness”

“Why then are you doing the bidding of Dimentio. Is Dimentio better than Cackletta? You surely wouldn’t serve somebody worse than her, would you?”

“Of coursing the no! Dimentio just has the bringing back of Fawful from the deadness!”

“I see. So that’s what’s stopping you from overthrowing him?”

“No! He also have the powerfulness of infinity of the Heart of Chaoticness!”

“What if he hadn’t?”

“Then I would have the destroying of him, without the doubt!”

“Good, good” Although the figure’s face was blanketed in darkness, Fawful could hear in his voicehis smile “I will return. Reflect on what I told you and look out for a little girl. That is Dimentio’s sole weakness. The sole that it is at your disposal, anyway”

“Have the waiting! What is your naming?”

The figure stopped in its tracks and muttered something to itself

“My master has nothing against me revealing my name. I am King Pimento”

“King of the whating?”

“Goodbye, little Bean. This won’t be the last time we speak”

The figure collapsed on himself, like if a black hole appeared inside of his chest. For a small second, Fawful saw a glimpse of something. A pair of eyes, red like fire, full of hate.

For the first time since years, Fawful had a terrible shiver. The Bean repressed his fear. The figure had talked of a way of defeating Dimentio. If that was indeed true...

“... Then Lord Fawful will have the lording of all worlds! Rururururu!”


	8. Training and Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dimentio scouts out Mercy’s powers and makes some important promises

Chapter 8: Training and Promises

As the luncheon ended Dimentio bowed to the his minions

“I am quite sorry, but I have to go tend to a guest. Geralt” he called the butler “Go and bring her to me”

“Who is being the guest?” Asked Fawful.

“She is just a little girl, nothing you should worry about, Fawful”

A light shined for a second in the Bean’s eyes, but Dimentio gave it no thought. As everybody left he called out for one of his minions “Antasma, you stay. I have a... private mission for you”

“Vhat is thy bidding, my Lord?”

“I want you to invade the holder of the Pure Hearts’ dreams”

“It shall be done, my master. I will terrorise he-”

“No. I will”

“My master?”

“I know that you’re a professional in these sorts of things. It’s just that I have informations that will deeply terrorize her. Informations I don’t wish to disclose, for now”

Antasma smiled “As you wish”

“Perfect. Now, you go”

As Antasma left, Dimentio teleported to the castle’s training room, where, some seconds later, Geralt and Mercy appeared, the little girl in Mimi’s yellow dress with white polka dots

“Welcome, you two. Mercy, I hope you slept well”

“Where did you put the diary, Dimentio?”

“Aw, a little lady that always goes straight to the point” he turned to Geralt “Geralt, you’re dismissed”

“Give it back, you meanie!”

“Your insults never fail to bring me back at the days when this was Castle Bleck and your mother chased me down the hallways. Aha ha ha”

“I have read about that. It didn’t surprise me”

“Ahaha. You already got there? I’m impressed. Good thing I took it, then. If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have enjoyed it, like a fool that drinks an exquisite wine all in one gulp, without even tasting it”

“Give it back!”

“I will, I assure you. Only, the truth is something only the strength can bear. I saw that you can fight with Mimi’s powers. But you have to have something yours. You can’t defend yourself with another’s power forever. Do you have any of your mother’s powers, other than the shapeshifting?”

Mercy esitated. Dimentio inquired that it was because she didn’t want him to know everything about her

“Let’s make a deal, if you don’t want to tell me. Hit me, even once, with anything, and I will not only give you your dear mother’s diary, I will teach you my dimensional magic. The only one that knew it is my... long dead teacher and I have progressed much further than anything she taught me”

“Really?” perked up Mercy. Dimentio supressed a laugh. Ah, the gullible youth. Dangle in front of them one little treat and they will do anything, like an horse that races forward to reach the carrot that is hanging in front of it

“Of course. Be warned that it is a difficult magic. So- ugh” he was interrupted by a blue gem that flew just a millimeter from his mask, dodged just because of his muscle reflexes, always on point even after years of being invincible and not needing to dodge

He instantly teleported to the top of a column “Ahaha. Treacherous attacks. I like what I see. You truly are-” he interrupted himself just in time, both to dodge an incoming barrage of blue sapphires and to not spoil anything to the little girl

He started flying circles around Mercy, just fast enough to dodge the incoming stones, all the while observing his diminutive opponent

Unlike her mother, she preferred to shoot her projectiles in a straight line, instead of an arc. That might be because he was far from her, but he couldn’t be sure. Another difference was that her gems were smaller than her mother’s ones, but came out a lot faster. That might be a choice, but he doubted that.

He had to admit that, despite her little age, she had a good aim. Had he been less fast, he would have already been hit

He stopped dead on his tracks, summoning a magic wall in front of him, just to test the power of the crystals. As for his suspicion, they didn’t pack quite a punch and not even their sheer number was enough of an advantage to counter balance that. It would without a doubt change with her age.

He could already picture her adult form. She would no doubt be a formidable fighter. Even more if she learned his magic

As he thought that, he didn’t notice how Mercy had dived to her left, having noticed how her attacks were having no effect on the barrier. He had to dodge quickly and was left quite irritated

Twice she had caught him unprepared. That would simply not do.

A devious idea appeared in his mind. He shot his barrier towards her, missing her by a fraction of an inch. Let’s see how she could defend

He started hurling his orbs towards her. She dodge, her nimbleness coming to her advantage

One orb was, however, too fast to dodge. She shot it one sapphire, dissipating both

Dimentio would have been impressed, if not for the fact that she failed to notice the second one just behind the first, that hit her straight in her chest, elettrocuting her and sending her tumbling on the ground

Dimentio approached the still form. She was no doubt rendered unconscious. She was only a six years old, after all and that magic orb, while surely not lethal, had an impact force that was not indifferent

“Ahaha. You should be more careful. Not everything is what-”

He was interrupted by a sound that came from Mercy. It was something between crying and a pained whimper “-it seems?”

Oh Grambi. He had underestimated her resistance, it seemed. But of course, what was he thinking? She was only a six years old, he should have held back more!

He rushed to her side, panicking “Don’t worry, Mercy, it will all be okay, I’ll-”

The sound changed. To a familiar laugh. Dimentio eyes widened, if ever so slightly. Oh dear. He had miscalculated

“ **Mimimimimi** ” laughed the little girl as her head spun furiously.

Dimentio took flight, aware that if Mercy had a ‘True Mimi’ form, he would with no doubt substain at least an hit in close quarters.

He was at least ten meters from the ground, when something gripped his foot.

He gave a look at whatever was beneath him and he immediatly wished he hadn’t. If True Mimi had been slightly unsettling, well what he was seeing now, would definetly haunt the dreams of a lesser being. Mercy’s head’s was, like Mimi’s, upside down, her limb body underneath it and her mismatched eyes glowing. That was were the similarities ended. From the side of her head four appendages sprouted, two humungous dragon-like wings of a dead grey with black venatures and two equally large arms with claws, of a profound blue. One of them was wrapped around his foot, while the other clutched a large and pulsing blue gem.

He immediatly called forth his teleport, that weirdly took a fraction of a second to answer, still managing to escape just before the large sapphire hit his previous position with a large explosion of blue fire and smoke.

Dimentio... was impressed. Treachery and deception? If she was auditioning for the Order, he would have welcomed her in

“Well, well. You are really good. You saw how much I value your wellbeing and used it to trick me, like an hunter that uses food to lure a prey into his trap! Brava, cara mia” he clapped, then made a sinister grin “But I don’t like being tricked. I won’t hold back now”

As he said those words two orbs shot from nowhere, striking Mercy’s fragile wings, making her crush to the ground.

Four clones of him appeared around Mercy, each one of them, alongside Dimentio, shooting three orbs towards the girl. Every time an attack was completed, they shuffled and repeated

Mercy swatted some of them with one arm, the other keeping her standing, but two of them hit her in the back, sending her to the ground, her claws disappearing

Dimentio dispelled his clones and teleported right on top of the downed girl, an orb on the tip of his right index, black tentacles pinning Mercy to the ground.

“What a shame, ahaha. Well, it will be for another time, I guess”

Mercy coughed “Are you sure?”

Dimentio followed her gaze and found a burn on his gown, no doubt from the explosion from earlier. It was minimal and wouldn’t have happened if not for that unexpected delay, but a promise was a promise

“Well, well. You’ve impressed me, my dear. But obviously you can’t learn dimensional magic all at once. There are many aspects of it and every one of them has must be thought in a different lesson. Or, at least, that’s how I want to teach it. Go search for my old teacher if you want to learn faster. Ahahaha. Ah”

His last fit of laughter felt a bit more melancholic than he intended. Well, he was going to tell her, now or later. Probably later

“But not now. I think there is something you may want to read first” he added wrily, producing Mimi’s diary and delivering it into Mercy’s open hand “One chapter only, I recommend. I know where you arrived, since you took my bookmark”

“I think I know the answer to two of the questions”

Dimentio’s interest was piqued “Oh? Which of them?”

“My mother has the Pure Hearts because she is the pefect vessel for them, alongside my father”

“Hm. Not completely wrong, not completely right. What was the other?”

“I-is my father Uncle Blumiere?”

Dimentio stopped before crushing her into oblivion. Was that possible? “Possible, maybe, but unlikely. My main candidate is another”

“So I got both wrong?”

Dimentio ruffled her hair “Aha. Don’t let your mistakes hold you down. You did some good deductions, with what little you had. What have you read until now? It was only the beginning. Some context. The real story begins on the next entry”

Dimentio’s left eye shined for a second “On what I call: ‘The Day Everything Changed’”


	9. The Day Everything Changed, the Night Everything Changed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is some Mimi! I think you maybe missed her.

Chapter 9: The Day Everything Changed, the Night Everything Changed

Mimi knocked on Dimentio’s room’s door as angrily as she could. This was it. Dimentio had not only stolen her diary, but he had left her a mocking copy, a scarily accurate parody that must have taken quite some time to write, given that it wasn’t written in Dimentio’s handwriting, but in an exaggerated version of hers. He had not only used the same ink, but changed it for an entry where she had changed it as well, using Nastasia’s pen because hers was all out of ink.

Seriously, while she could appreciate the effort that it surely took to devise such a way of getting on her nerves, it was certainly creepy, if not borderline stalker behaviour.

She had already shown it to Nastasia, but she said that while he was surely disruptive, surely annoying and a bit creepy, he was mentioned in the prophecy, so he was not expendable

“Dimentio, come out from there, you doofus! You’ve crossed the line, no-”

She was interrupted as the jester opened the door, his smile ever present, but while to the untrained eye his expression was cryptic, Mimi observed that he was annoyed “Mimi dearest! To what I owe the pleasure of your visit?” He said, putting the slightest enphasys on the word pleasure

“You know it, you idiot! My diary! Now!”

Dimentio’s smile grew bigger “Mimi dearest, I don’t know what you mean. Your diary is still in your possession”

Mimi waved the faux diary “Are you talking about this?”

“Why, yes. It is your diary” he took it from her hands, flipped a pair of pages, then read out loud ‘“Oh, dear diary, I can’t wait for the end of all worlds, so I will be able to live in my pool of rubees with my hunky lifeguards and the Counti- oof”

Dimentio’s reading was cut short by the dull side of a rubee slamming into his stomach, sending him backwards.

Mimi seized this opportunity and rushed in, half hoping her diary was somewhere she could see, so she could take it, half wanting to see what Dimentio was hiding in his room. He had always been so secretive about it, forbidding anyone from entering. He had to hide something!

And something it was

When she saw it, she couldn’t believe her own eyes. She must be mistaken

An enormous book sat open upon Dimentio’s purple desk. Around it papers with what Mimi assumed were copied pages, in Dimentio’s handwriting. On the wall were pinned photos of a man in green, with numerous post-its with notes or even interrogative points, attached to one another with a red string

“Is that the Dark P-mpph!”

Dimentio, who had by now recovered from the hit, had slammed the door shut with magic and was holding one hand over Mimi’s mouth

He whispered something, snapped his fingers and left her.

“Now you can talk. Nobody can hear what happens here”

That sounded... strangely forebading. Whatever, Mimi told herself, Dimentio was done for!

“Dimentio! You have stolen the Dark Prognosticus!”

“Ahaha. Yes, it appears I have. However Mimi, I would reconsider doing whatever you’re-”

“Nuh-huh! The Count will throw you out when he finds out! My life will finally have peace!”

Dimentio, before looking kind of frightened, assumed a more menacing expression, his smile ever still up, but fake, plastic-like, feeling ever more as a mask. The temperature of the room dropped several degrees.

“I see. I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Mimi. Your game ends here” a pure black orb appeared in his palm

Mimi’s blood froze. Was-was he saying he would kill her “Ahah, Dimentio. Stop with the joke. It’s not funny, like all yours”

Dimentio shook his head “I’m afraid it’s no laughing matter. I have worked far too much to see all go to waste”

“W-wait” Mimi tried to stop him as he inched slowly further “N-Nastasia knows I am here! She will know that you killed me!”

“Maybe. She won’t be able to prove it. Maybe the Count will believe her, but it’s better than letting you banish me” his hand rose, the black orb in between it and Mimi’s head

“Goodbye, Mimi”

“Waitwaitwait!”

Dimentio sighed “What now? The Count will notice, before or later, that the Dark Prognosticus is gone”

“I won’t tell anybody! I swear!”

Dimentio rolled his eyes “Oh, please, Mimikins. Do you think me that stupid. If I let you go, the most logical path for you would be to tell the Count on me. Your goal is, after all, to make me go away. You stated it earlier”

“I just want you to stop bothering me! If you stop doing that, I will have no reason to tell on you!”

Dimentio pondered for a second “Alright. I’ll trust you” his sarcastic smile returned “After all, it would be an hassle disposing of your body”

Mimi shuddered. Joking like that about wanting to kill her... Dimentio was a deranged psycopath. “I-is that all?”

“Ahaha. No, of course”

Mimi’s limbs were frozen by a spell

“You might still tell on me, just for spite. So, just as a precaution, you will consult the Dark Prognosticus with me. You’ll be as guilty as me. Ahaha”

Mimi nodded, then the spell vanished “Good. Follow me”

Dimentio sat down at his desk, instantly immersing in his work, his eyes running along the lines of the dark book, copying some parts, skipping others, scribbling something on a piece of paper

Mimi gave a thought about running the hell out of there, but as soon as made a step Dimentio snapped his fingers and a chair appeared right next to him.

Mimi sat down, quietly. She was still too scared of the beast she saw through the mask. The cold, sadistic monster, who had been unleashed just because she was an inconvenience

She could just shudder, thinking of what could happen to those who angered him.

Mimi was walking again in the halls of Castle Bleck. How did she end here? Where was everybody?

She ended up in front of the door to Dimentio’s room, how she ignored. She felt strangely compelled to open it

In front of her eyes, a shocking sight appeared.

Dimentio, barely recognizable in a new monstrous form, held Mercy in on of his tentacles. He lacked arms or legs, only tendrils sprouted from under his gown. His head was on the top of a long, black neck, the mask split vertically in an horrifying mouth with razor sharp teeth sprouting from both sides.

As she entered the room, Dimentio head, that was previously examining Mercy, shot towards her, his neck lengthening until there couldn’t be more than an inch separating it and her face.

“Hello Mimi”

Mimi? She almost asked “Dimentio? W-what are you doing?” She said, while slowly inching back, out of fear. What had happened to him? W-was this the Chaos Heart?

“Oh, I can’t allow that, Mimi”

The door slammed shut from the outside. Mimi registered this information. Wasn’t Dimentio’s room’s door closed from the inside? Yes, it did, she remember it quite well

“Last time we met, I almost killed you, remember?”

She remembered the last time they met. It wasn’t...

“I’m glad I didn’t” Dimentio’s demented smile grew even larger, if that was possibile. **“Now I get to kill what you value the most, right in front of your eyes”**

This wasn’t right, this wasn’t right, all of this wasn’t right. It must have been... No, this must be a nightmare!

“You think that this is a nightmare? It is, actually! Ahahaha! Again, for dramatic effect! Ahahaha! But it is also as true in the real world as the fact that even now I despise you, all of you. You are imperfect. For that, you will die”

Those words

Dimentio choked her with his tendrils “Now watch, Mimi. Watch as what will happen soon like a movie critic watching the early release of a movie”

Mimi vision was darkening, her powers null, as she watched Dimentio approaching Mercy’s crying form to his mouth.

She passed away just before Dimentio’s jaw cut off Mercy’s head from her body, still earing the sound.

Mimi woke up, drenched in sweat. That... was just a nightmare.

Was it just that? Dimentio admitted that it was one. It wasn’t real, but it was clear that Dimentio wasn’t just a fantasy. What was he saying to her?

That Mercy was with him. He wanted to make sure that she knew that. And he wanted her to know what would happen to her. As true as... yes, it could only mean that.

The consequences of the fact that Mercy was with Dimentio fully registered in her mind

She didn’t have much time.

The next morning Nastasia entered Mimi’s room, unlocking it from the outside.

“Mimi-” she stopped, realising that the room was empty.

“Oh”


	10. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two forces, one of goodness, one of evil, prepare their schemes

Chapter 10: Plans

The Mushroom Kingdom. This land was once one of happiness, but, even if it wasn’t ravaged by war as the neighboring BeanBean Kingdom, it was now gloomy, sad, like if it was mourning. Maybe it was the lack of their beloved princess or of the two heroes, maybe they missed even Bowser’s invasions, those never failed to amuse the denizens. Seriously, the lengths he went to try and kidnap Peach were sometimes ridiculous.

They were all gone, now. Now, the land was ruled by Lord Fawful. The roads of the Mushroom Kingdom were patrolled by giant hulking robots. Many toads, first of all Peach’s steward, the elderly Toadsworth, were thrown in Peach’s old palace, converted in a prison, where, toads whispered, horrific experiments were carried out on them.

It was here that Mario appeared. He was wearing a disguise, a false toad’s head and a trenchcoat.

He sneaked in less-traveled roads and arrived to the back of the castle without any problem. He opened a secret passage, one which Bowser had used many times to kidnap the princess. Mario still thought fondly of these times, where the biggest of concerns was not finishing to save the princess in time for Go-Karting (at which Bowser himself was invited. Mario still remembered that time Bowser had let Peach go, just because he had promised Bowser Jr. they would go race together). He slipped past the mechanical guards, arriving at Toadsworth’s cell.

The elderly toad was expecting him. “Mario! Did-”

Mario nodded, gravely

Toadsworth nodded as well “Ah... as we feared. What about now?”

“I have an idea, it’s riskier, but we’ll try”

“I don’t doubt a second that you’ll make it” reassured him the toad, opening the cell and twisting a torch behind him, revealing an elevator.

Mario entered and went down. Inside the blasted contraption he had finally time to think.

Dimentio had Mercy and Luigi. He wished he could be as trusting towards himself as Toadsworth. All odds were stacked against them. He chuckled. He would never have expected this when he first saved Peach. He hoped that there was cake at the end of this adventure, too.

Once the elevator stopped, Mario stepped out. He recollected himself as he walked. The others had to see him like always or they would get more demoralized than they already were.

He encountered a panting Nastasia

“Mario! It’s terrible!”

“Stay calm, Nastasia. Take long breaths. Then tell me what’s terrible”

“Mimi... She has escaped”

Mario sighed. Could anything go worse? “Did she caught wind of Mercy’s stay with Dimentio?”

Nastasia shook her head “I haven’t and so the others, as you told me”

“There must be Dimentio’s hand in this, somehow. Call all others into the meeting room”

“I... think they already are there”

“Good”

The two marched down the hallway, passing some guards, both toads and koopas, and entered a big room, filled with all their allies. Minus Luigi, of course

They all turned to look at him

Blumiere started to speak, but then stopped

Mario cleared his voice “Good morning everyone. Has Nastasia informed you all about our new... situation?”

They all nodded slowly

“That makes it easier, I guess. I too bring bad news. Luigi had the Beanstar with him when he was captured”

Bowser cursed

“What will we do, Mario?” Asked Peach

“We will have to speed up the plan. As you all know, we needed the power of the Beanstar, capable of granting wishes, to hope to defeat Dimentio. One of our allies in the Beanbean Kingdom, Popple, had stolen the Beanstar for us. Luigi went to take it here, but... you all know how that went. Right now we have two possible course of action

The first one is an all out attack on Castle Dimentio. This has extremely small possibilities of success. Not only Dimentio is there, but as of afterwards of our visit, we discovered that as of now it is impossible to flip into that dimension. Even the portal in Flipside has disappeared.

The second one, while risky, is our best shot. There was another wish granting stone. It was the Dreamstone”

“Are you stupid, Mario?” Roared Bowser “I destroyed it!”

O’Chunks elbowed him in the ribs “Shut up, big lad! ‘E ‘adn’t finished!”

Mario nodded “Thanks, O’Chunks. Yes, Bowser, you destroyed it. But there is always the being that created it. The Zeekeeper. As of now, he is prisoner of Antasma. We’ll attack P’illo Island. It will have to be quick. We’ll all go, but we’ll separate ourselves in teams. Bowser, O’Chunks, Blumiere, Peach, Timpani. You’ll remain on the island, be the decoy. Antasma won’t probably call any of the order if you are there, Bowser. He still wants revenge. Personally”

“What did yae tae ‘im, big lad?” O’Chunks whispered to Bowser

“I betrayed him and left him to die against Luigi and Mario”

O’Chunks made a surprised expression “Uh. Yae’re smarter than it seems”

Mario cleared his troath again, to recall the two’s attention.

“If you please...” Mario gave them a look and sighed “Anyway. While you distract him, me and Nastasia will sneak inside the Dream Realm to free the Zeekeeper. Understood?”

All made signs of agreement

“This could be our last chance everyone. Let’s see to make it count”

“Hello again”

The sudden voice startled Fawful, that shook and nearly destroyed the robot that he was working on with the laser he was holding. He shut it down and turned back.

The hooded figure was back, the mangled remains of the head of the robot guard that was at his lab’s door before at his feet

“Pimento”

“Why, Fawful, aren’t you happy to see me?”

“I would have more of the happiness if you hadn’t the destroying of my guards the time of every time you had the showing up”

“Ahaha. Touché, my Beanish friend. Have you thought about my offer?”

Fawful nodded “I would have the liking of the hearing the waying of defeating Dimentio”

“Wouldn’t be better to observe it with your own eyes?” He produced something from under his cloak.

They were two half sferes, all black, apart from the half star on both of them, which was dark grey

Fawful took them from Pimento’s hand and united them, so that the half stars became a full star and the half spheres a full one

“The Star of Darkness...” It was different from the last time he had seen it. It lacked the malevolent face in the star.

“Yes, it is The Dark Star. What remains of it, anyways. It is however drained of its power and of its original consciousness”

“What is the using of it then!”

“Calm. The fact that is devoid of consciousness plays at your favor, here. Before, that consciousness influenced you. Now, it shall only be a tool. And there is a way to restore its power.”

“That is the whating?”

“It would need an object with an enormous dark power. I don’t know if that exists anymore...”

“It has the existing! The Stone of Darkness! Dimentio had the giving of it to the bat!”

“Really? Good, Fawful, good. If you can get it, the Dark Star will reveal its full power to you”

“Will that have the enoughing to have the defeating of Dimentio?”

“Right now? I doubt that. But after my plan comes into fruition... ahaha. Let’s say you won’t need to trouble with him”


	11. New Friends, Old Friends

Chapter 11: New Friends, Old Friends

Mercy wandered Castle Dimentio. When she had woken up that morning, she had found a purple card where she left the diary, laying on one side, showing her captor’s smiling mask. She had flipped it, finding a scribbled message on the other side. ‘Dear Mercy’ it read ‘I have some menial tasks to perform this morning. Feel free to explore all of the Castle, if you want to. As Geralt will have no doubt shown you, in the closet of our room there is a collection of your mother’s clothes. If they don’t fit, feel free to ask for others’.

As usual, he was uncharacteristically kind. At this point she would be more surprised if she threw her in a dungeon

Castle Dimentio was really large, Dimentio had really outdone himself. Where could she go first?

The thought hit her like a sledgehammer. Uncle Luigi!

She had come just for him. To save him.

While that was no longer a possibility, as she was also a prisoner (kind of), she couldn’t help but feel bad. Heck, while she chatting, eating and learning with Dimentio, he was probably being tortured! The least she could do was-

“Hey! Wah-tch where you are going!” Screamed the purple figure she had collided with, lost in her thoughts. He was tall and lean, wearing a purple jumpsuit and a purple cap with an inverted L. Oddly enough, he was carrying a purple tennis racket sporting an inverted L simble, too. It took a second for Mercy to recognize him s Waluigi, one of Dimentio’s enforcers.

“Oh! I’m s-sorry!”

Waluigi almost ignored her, then he turned to look at her better, a perplexedexpression on his face “Wah-it a second, who are you?”

“I-I’m, Dimentio said, I just-”

“The Boss? You work for him?”

Mercy almost went to explain, but then simply nodded

“Wah-nderful! This place is so empty! There is just me, L, the Boss and that annoying butler. Him and all his rules. ‘You can’t build a giant statue inside your room’ ‘No giant Bob-ombs with lasers inside castle walls’ ‘You can’t solve all problems by hitting them with a racket’. He’s so annoying!”

“Well, I’m sure not all problems can be solved by a racket”

“Bah! Wah! You just have to find the right racket!”

“Okay, so sweep the floor”

“Easy! Wah!” He pulled out a broom “Here you go!”

“That’s a broom, not a racket” Mercy deadpanned

“You sound just like him. Is he your father? You look alike. And this is a racket. A long racket, with no head and loose fabric at one end”

“Then it’s... nevermind. Oh! Do you know the way to the dungeon?”

“Sure! I have my shift there, in an hour!”

“Could you lead me there?”

“Of course, wah! In return, could you do me an eensy teensy tiny favour?”

“Uhh, sure?”

“Wah! Thank you!”

Waluigi literally picked her up, with a force you wouldn’t expect from his lean frame, and started running down the halls, only stopping out of a purple door that stood out far too much against Castle Dimentio’s green color scheme.

Mercy wriggled out of Waluigi’s grip “You could ask nicely, the next time!”

“Wah! This wah-s the fastest method! Now, for the favor I asked you?”

Mercy sighed “What do you want me to do?”

“My friend and me are having a tennis match. But he’s a cheater! And he accuses me of cheating! Wah! Could you be the referee?”

“I... don’t know how to play tennis”

“Wah! That’s no issue! I have just the racket for that” He threw her a big book “It’s a racket with the rules!”

It seemed there was no getting out. “Alright, I’ll do it”

“Wah-ntastic!” Waluigi literally kicked down the door “L! I found a referee!”

A guy dressed like Luigi but in black, with a bandana and a mask, was tinkering with some tech on the ground “Finally! It would have taken half the time, with my mechanical referee!”

“As if I wah-ould have trusted your machines!”

“Talking about machines, what should we put as the turreted weapon in my Brobot? I thought of a Tesla tower! To zap the heroes”

“Wah-t do you mean? I’ve already put it in the project of my Wah-bot a perfect weapon! A Bob-omb launcher, that doubles as a tennis ball launching machine!”

“Are you talking about this?” Mr L produced a light purple sheet of paper, with a crudely drawn doodle of a mechanical body with a turret in its chest and an oversized Waluigi head in purple ink, with even a muscular Waluigi flexing at the side “This is not a project. This is a five-years-old’s drawing”

“Wah! Let’s settle this with a tennis match!”

“Finally something we agree on, junior!”

Dear Grambi, what had she agreed to?

The two nemesises took place inside of the tennis court, with Mercy in a high chair on one side of it and two crowds of mechanical spectators, each one of them sporting either Mr L’s cap and mustache or Waluigi’s

Waluigi shot the first ball, and they continued to launch it to each other at astonishing speeds, the crowd cheering them on. They were very talented, even Mercy’s untrained eye could see that. Waluigi dominated the court with his long strikes, while L’s short and fast rebuttals made Waluigi run

In the end it was Waluigi that managed to score, with a precise strike in the left corner of L’s court

15-0

“Wahahaha! You need to train more, L! Waa! Maybe you could do it with my tennis ball launching machine, when we install it on my Wahbot!”

L made a smirk “You haven’t seen anything, Mr-Wahs-All-The-Time!”

“Take this!” Waluigi threw the ball, only to have it rebutted by a second racket, held by a mechanical arrm on Mr L’s back, scoring one point for the Green Thunder

15-15

“Wah-t was that?!”

“It’s my Tennis Exoskeleton 2000!”

“You’re cheating again!”

“Ah, ah, Waluigi, the rulebook doesn’t talk about mechanical exoskeletons, so I’m not breaking any rule!”

Mercy checked the book frantically “It doesn’t talk about them!”

“Wah! Fine! So I’ll just have to solve this problem”

He threw the ball to Luigi, who sent it back

“I’ll just need the right racket!” Waluigi clicked a button on his racket, that elongated, becoming a stick with one racket head on each end. He twirled it, sending the ball in L’s court, scoring another point for Waluigi

30-15

“That was a good one, but take this! Have at you!” From behind L came two drones, that began shooting hundreds of tennis balls

“I’ll just need more rackets!” Hundreds of rackets began levitating behind Waluigi, moved by his telepathy, sending back every ball, except one, that assigned one point to Mr L

30-30

“Wah! Telepatically guided ball!”

40-30

“Racket with rocket launcher incorporated 3000!”

40-40

“Bob-ombs!”

50-40

“Deflector shield!”

50-50

“Sonic wah-ve!”

They continued like this for hours long, each move more destructing than the other, never managing to break the tie, until they were both panting, their clothes tattered and drenched in sweat, having lost the count of the points

“Wah-ho make this point, wins. Is that good?”

“Sounds like I win, then, junior! Have at you!” Mr L started to charge up his lightning powers into the racket

“Green Thunder Tennis Blast!” He shouted while hitting the ball, making it into a green lightning ball

“Wah! Still Unnamed Flaming Move!” Waluigi shouted back, his racket lit with purple fire

He brought the racket on the ball

When it hit the ball, everything went white

When Mercy could see again, all the room had been destroyed by the explosion.

Waluigi and Mr L stood unmoved, both black from head to toe, Waluigi’s left mustache even had a small flame on the top

Mr L was the first to speak “That...”

“Wah-s...”

“EPIC!” They shouted together, running towards the center of the court and highfiving eachother

“You thinking wah-t I am thinking?” Asked Waluigi

“Lightning powered Bob-omb launcher, that doubles as a tennis launcher?”

“Exactly, bro!”

“I’ll go to work on it immediatly! You coming, bro?”

“Of course, bro!” A thought passed in Waluigi’s head and he checked his watch “Wah! I’m late for my shift!”

“As usual, purple idiot!”

“Wah! I’ll go! Try not to blow up anything, you bufoon!”

“We both work for a jester!”

“That’s not the point! Come little one, I’ll bring you to the dungeons, chop, chop!”

Mercy stood in front of the door, Waluigi tapping his foot at the side

“Could wah-e do it quick? I don’t have all day!”

“Y-yes”

Mercy reached up to the door and tried to open it. A magic eye appeared and scanned her

The door slid open

Waluigi whistled “So you are a big shot! Wah!”

She stepped him, paying Waluigi no mind.

Inside the cell, it was dark, but she could still see.

On the farthest wall, there was Luigi. He was fixed to the wall by binders on each of his limbs, his head hanging low. His clothes were tattered and dirty with caked blood, but his wounds had been treated, if the lack of blood loss told anything.

“U-uncle Luigi?”

Luigi’s head shot upwards and his eyes expanded in surprise when he saw Mercy

“Mercy...”

She run towards him, then turned, to bark to Waluigi “Free him!”

“I’m not supposed to do that-”

Mercy shot him her meanest glare

“Wah! Calm down! I’ll do it, just calm down! Wah!” he lifted one hand and the restraints opened, freeing Luigi, who fell to the ground.

Mercy and Luigi started hugging

Waluigi slowly stepped away, exiting the room and closing the door. He then proceded to run back to his room

Luigi made a big smile and caressed Mercy’s cheek “I missed you, little one. How is Mario?”

“Last time I saw him? Worried”

“Mamma mia... He’s probably losing his mind, right now...”

“But how are you Uncle Luigi? Has he...”

“Not much. He tried to interrogate me, used Antasma’s nightmare powers to squeeze where the base is out of my mind. I beat the bat up and tried to escape. That’s why I have so many cuts and bruises”

“I was so worried, Uncle...”

“What about you? How did you end here?”

Mercy blushed in embarassment “I... came to free you. But Dimentio caught me. In like two minutes...”

Luigi hugged her again “Don’t worry, princess. He’s a scary bad guy. I’m proud you even managed to sneak in”

Mercy hugged him back “Thank you, Uncle Weege”

“Don’t worry. Does Dimentio know...”

“Yes. He has actually been pretty... kind. It seems crazy, but he’s even offered to train me to use magic and he wants to show me the ‘true story’”

Luigi watched Mercy straight in the eyes “Mercy...”

“Uncle Luigi... is he going to tell the truth?”

Luigi looked unsure, then he defeatingly nodded “Maybe he is going to use a different light to describe what he did, what your mother did and what we did, but he isn’t going to lie. He believes himself so righteous that he doesn’t need to lie to cover up what he did. Normally he would lie regardless, just for the heck of it. Not to you. You are... special, in his eyes. Something he could never have had”

“Uncle...”

“I know what you want to ask of me. But I won’t. I promised to not tell you”

Mercy nodded “Okay Uncle. I’ll...”

“Can i just ask you a favor, Mercy?”

“Anything Uncle, anything” She replied softly, tearing a bit up

“Do not judge us too harshly. We all did things we aren’t proud of. Please... don’t hate us” he chuckled darkly “I-I couldn’t bear the thought. I have truly begun to love you...”

He ruffled her hair

“I c-could never hate you, Uncle...”

“I‘d really like to believe that” Luigi smiled sadly “It is the thing I wish for most. But... maybe... what we’ve done six years ago is beyond forgiveness”


	12. Prophecies

Chapter 12: Prophecies

Merlon tried to make as little noise as possible. The half white half black beast was right above him.

That was not how expected to end his life. That day he had really expected the heroes to win, expecially when the Void retreated to Castle Bleck. What happened next... defied the Light Prognosticus. Ironic, given the reason it all happened

When Dimentio’s armies had flooded Flipside, searching for the Light Prognosticus, he hid. Thanks to the good people of Flipside the jester hadn’t found him or the Light Prognosticus.

Yet.

“Come on Ancient!” Called Dimentio, holding the hulking, dog-like abodimentio on a magic leash. “Don’t you want to play? I may even not murder you!”

Merlon started walking, putting one foot in front of the other as silently as possible. There was a sewer line collegated to the hidden basement. He would notice with no doubt Merlon teleporting and he would put in trouble the family hiding him.

“I just need the Light Prognosticus, Ancient!”

Merlon clutched the book closer to his chest. As if! He would defend it with his life!

Dimentio sighed exageratedly, with feigned annoyance “Whatever. I’ll give you three seconds to come out! One!”

Merlon started approaching the manhole faster

“Two!”

Almost there...

“Three!”

Merlon clutched the manhole’s handle

Dimentio chuckled from just behind him. “Bad. No getting away, when we’re playing!”

Merlon froze, just long enough for Dimentio to shoot one of his spheres in Merlon’s stomach, elettrocuting him and launching him into the grip of Dimentio’s beast, that the magician had teleported on the other side of the room. Merlon still kept the Light Prognosticus to his chest with all of his force.

Mustn’t... Won’t...

“Oh, such devotion in the eyes of a dead man!”

“I’m... not dead, Dimentio” spat out Merlon, regaining some of his power. If he managed to delay just for some seconds... he could teleport out!

“Oh, you are. Your body just didn’t catch up yet” A dark spell powered up in Dimentio’s hand “Goodbye, Ancient”

Just then, when Merlon was preparing to teleport out of the room, praying to not fall into the hands of Dimentio’s army, the most unusual thing happened. The Light Prognosticus started to glow. Then, a ring of pure white came from it, knocking back Dimentio and dissipating Dimentio’s creature.

Both magician and sage knew what that could only mean. A new prophecy...

Dimentio shot up and... his powers were gone

Merlon, not even noticing, teleported out of the dimension

Dimentio tried again, finally managing to recover control of his magic and obliterating the floor above him

This was... troubling, to say the least. He had to find her, fast. He did not have much time to destroy all worlds

_There’s always the other way_

‘Never. It wouldn’t be perfect otherwise’ Dimentio sighed and try to silence the voice of the Chaos Heart, to think of the perfect worlds, of why he was doing it.

‘Pixl... Mimi... and now, Mercy. I’m doing it for you’

_You’ll fail_

“Aha ha ha ha. We shall see about that”

Dimentio snapped his fingers. It seemed that he would return to home early.

If the Light Prognosticus had a prophecy, so would the Dark Prognosticus

Mario readied his things. Fire flowers, mushrooms and... he looked at the last invincibility star. Dimentio’s minions had taken all of them and destroyed them, but he had managed to save this. He moved his hand towards it, but then retracted it.

Just as he started getting up, a familiar figure made his entrance, uncharacteristically running.

“Merlon? Weren’t you in Flipside?” Mario asked, worried

“Dimentio found me. I teleported here to escape him. Don’t worry. It’s unlikely he is able to find where I teleported”

“What about the Light Prognosticus?”

“That’s the matter. Dimentio had almost captured me, when a new prophecy appeared on the Prognosticus. The power that the book radiated was enough to send him back and destroy his beasts. I managed to escape in the chaos”

“A new prophecy? Have you read it yet?”

“No. I came here immediately, because I understood that you were departing”

“It’s a good thing you found me. What is here could help us save everybody!”

Merlon nodded “That’s what I hope as well”

Without further ado Merlon opened the tome and got to the last prophecy

He started reading aloud

_“When the Chaos is blanketed in Loves_

_And then Dead Love, shrouded by madness, at the back Alive Love shoves;_

_When Chaos devours Bean and Dream_

_All worlds in despair shall scream_

_But nothing will know bane_

_If the Creators, the Hiders and What Them Tore Apart unite again”_

Both the hero and the sage stood in silence for one second

“And what does it mean?” Asked Mario

“I... have genuinely no idea”

Dimentio started flipping the Dark Prognosticus pages, giddy with enothusiasm. It had been too much time since he had a genuine new prophecy to analize. He glanced at the clock. It was late in the evening, probably Mercy would be reading of that day. He could only remember it...

Mimi approached the purple door.

Two days had passed from when she discovered Dimentio’s secret. She had tried every way to avoid him, hiding in her room, faking a flu.

This morning she had found a small card, purple and yellow, Dimentio’s colors, folded on itself. On the inside, a note.

_14:00. My room. Don’t be late,_

_Dimentio_

Dimentio opened the door before she could even attempt to knock

“Mimikins. Right on time”

Mimi stepped inside without a word.

A soft thump indicated that Dimentio had closed the door.

“I have provided better accomodations than last time’s. I hope you find them welcoming enough”

True to his word, the Dark Prognosticus stood on a circular smallish table in the center of the room, with two elegant metallic chairs

“Why are you doing this, Dimentio?”

Dimentio floated all the way to one of the chairs, taking his place “I believe I already told you the why, Mimi dearest”

“No, why are you stealing the Dark Prognosticus!”

“Aha, Mimi. I can’t tell you that”

“You wanted me to become a conspirator, no?”

Dimentio stood motionless, without speaking, for some fractions of a second. “Fine. You do remember when I asked the Count to join? If it wasn’t for your help, which I have to thank you for and which is one of the major reasons you’re still alive, he would’ve missed a part of the prophecy. He may be wise, but he can also commit errors. I just want to check the prophecies”

That... actually wasn’t that bad. And here she thought Dimentio was going to betray the Count!

“So we’re... actually helping the Count?”

“Aha ha ha” Dimentio chuckled “Of course we are. I am, after all, a loyal minion of Count Bleck”

Mimi nodded energically “What can I do then?”

“Aha ha. Ever the determined little helper, when it comes to the ‘Countie’. The answer is not much. You do not speak Ancient, do you? I mostly copy the Prognosticus to later translate it. I don’t see much you could help me with”

“I... can check if you copied right?”

“Aha ha. I make no errors. I studied the Ancient language for centuries, I am maybe the most-”

“You misspelt here”

Dimentio remained silent, his expression cryptic and static “I’m sorry, what?”

“Here. You wrote this symbol instead of this similar one”

Dimentio snatched the copy and checked. Oh bother

“I don’t make mistakes, uh?” Mimi tried to sass him, but he ignored her

“This... changes everything. Aha ha ha”

He shot towards Mimi, that flinched, fearing that he would eliminate her for having pointed out his mistake

She was thoroughly surprised when Dimentio, out of all things, hugged her. Dimentio hated physical contact!

“Mimikins! I have to thank you ever more, it seems!”

“What does it says?”asked Mimi, blushing a bit. Dimentio was much too close for her confort. She only got this close with her occasional boyfriends and Dimentio... ew. Ew, ew, ew. Bad brain, bad.

“It doesn’t matter, right now. But, oh, our time has ended!”

“Only two minutes passed...”

“Already? You must go, then”

“But-”

“Ciao, Mimi!”

Suddenly Mimi found herself in her room, confused.

... Ah, the past. Dimentio found himself reminiscing more than he would like about his time at Castle Bleck, like an old man thinking about his youth.

If everything went well, he would need to reminisce no more

Here it was

_When Star and Stone clash_

_And the Chaos’ power is rendered to ash;_

_When Love dies_

_And the Dark One on the ground lies_

_The Masked One and the Green Mind under a Blue Mask will meet again_

_And all worlds shall know pain_

“Truly... Aha ha ha. The next days will be quite... interesting. We’ll meet again... and all worlds will end! Aha ha ha ha ha! Again, for dramatic effect! Aha ha ha ha!”

Dimentio’s hysteric laugh echoed through the castle’s hallways

Mercy stirred, under her covers, already fast asleep

Geralt sighed, knowing his master wouldn’t sleep this night

Luigi trembled, fearing what the dark magician was planning 

A figure just outside smiled. All was going according to the plan of the Chaos Heart.


	13. Magic Lessons

Chapter 13: Magic Lessons

“Gooooooooooood...”

Mercy’s sleeping form stirred just a bit, mildly disturbed by the faint disembodied voice.

“MORNING!”

Dimentio, teleporting right next to Mercy’s right ear, yelled. Mercy shot up from her bed, her body in fight or flight mode yelling like a startled beast, while Dimentio started cackling like he was high on some drug, laying on his side while levitating.

“Aha ha ha ha. You’re surely the most entertaining thing to have happened to come across me in-” “Six years?” Mercy interrupted him, scowling, “Seriously, everything seems to have happened six years ago!”

“I cannot disagree. It was an... interesting period of time.”

“Are you here just to be annoying and talk of the past?”

“No, of course! You hurt me with these assumptions! But maybe I should go... after all, you wouldn’t be interested in a mere magic lesson...”

“Magic lesson?”

Her expression lit up. Aha. Of course. It was almost too easy, but again, the youth was so gullible! Magic fascinated them, he had discovered.

“But of course! You won our little bet, after all, but here just won’t do. A novice with magic is a dangerous little thing. Magic can come like this...” he says and a delicate purple and yellow flower with an easily noticeable green pistil appeared in his hand, “But it so easy for it to come like this, instead.”

A blue and red flame arose from his fingers, reducing the flower to ash.

“We wouldn’t want damaging this room. It is your mother’s, did you know?”

“I... had deduced that.”

“Good girl!” Dimentio ruffled Mercy’s hair, “You certainly have some wits, that I can tell! Now eat.” With a swift movement of his other hand, the black ash became a juicy looking blue fruit.

“Being properly nourished is extremely important, not just for magic, but for a correct growth. I certainly think you don’t plan on remaining this little forever”

Mercy blushed and snatched the fruit from Dimentio’s hand, starting chewing on it.

“Can we just get to the training?” she asked.

“Aha. Of course. I believe...”

Snap!

“Here’s a more adept place for the theoretical part of our lesson!”

They had teleported in Dimentio’s room. It had green walls, with purple furniture. At the centre of one wall stood an enormous baldaquin bed, purple and yellow, and at the right of it a black desk was placed, holding an ancient looking book Mercy could only assume was the Dark Prognosticus.

“Now, before we get into offence or defence, there is something else you should learn first. Without offence you can’t win a fight, but without defence you probably won’t either. What to learn first, then? The answer is neither. If you can’t win a fight, you merely have to run away...” he said and floated a little higher and flew circles around Mercy a couple times, “Or hide...”

On cue, he disappeared under invisibility.

“What shall we do first, then?”

Dimentio was about to suggest floating, but then... something inside him ordered him to teach her invisibility. He didn’t know why, floating had many more applications than invisibility, but he went along. “Invisibility. It is very easy. You just have to...”

“Kaksi? Are you listening to me?”

The little boy stood to attention.

“Yes, father!”

The kid couldn’t be more than six years old. He had a light cyan skin and heterocromatic eyes, his left one as yellow as gold, the right one as blue as the sky. His hair was longish for a boy, straight and pure black. He wore a black jerkin over a dark blue long sleeved dress shirt, black dress pants and black boots.

“Good, good. I need your attention for this. Tap into your magic, like you do for your magic tricks, you remember?”

Happy memories crossed the mind of the boy, his mother and father laughing and smiling at his first magic trick, a rain of white and blue flower petals summoned from nowhere. He nodded and concentrated.

“You see it?”

An enormous lake of light cyan water. Another nod.

“Take some, but don’t be eager. Do it delicately. Imagine your body being coated by a sliver of magic.”

Kaksi did as instructed and, when he opened his eyes, he was nowhere to be seen! He put his hand over his face and the only thing he could see was his father proud face. His father was happy! Kaksi was happy, then. The deep blue skinned man had been so worried, lately, always talking to Kaksi’s mother, whispering.

“You did so good, my boy! Can you drop it? Just imagine it away.”

Kaksi returned visible, made a happy twirl on himself, lifted and dropped his invisibility rapidly to show his father how good he was. Mother always said that he was a bit of a showoff, but she said it smiling, so it probably wasn’t a bad thing? His father picked him up and hugged him.

“You did so good! You’re going to be a great magician, one day!”

“You really think that, Dad?”

“But of course. You have the blood of both the Tribe of Darkness and the Tribe of Ancients, the greatest magicians ever! And, even if you won’t, your father will always love you all the same.”

The man put Kaksi down and gave him a kiss on his forehead. Then, a knock could be heard.

“Kaksi? Kuningas?” his mother opened the door and entered the room, “It won’t hold much longer. Is it done, dear?”

Kaksi’s father sighed and nodded.

“I had hoped we had more time. Is teleporting still blocked?”

Kaksi’s mother nodded.

“Their wizard is good.”

“I see. I... shall go down. Do what you must.”

Kaksi’s father went out of the room and closed the door.

“Is something happening, Mom?”

“We... have some bad guests. They don’t like us and want to do bad things to us.”

“But you’re going to defeat them, right?”

The pale skinned woman smiled.

“Of course! Your father and I are very skilled wizards, after all!”

“Can I help?”

“No!” the woman yelled in panic, then she continued, in a calmer tone, “I-I mean, you have a really important job!”

“Oh! What is it?”

Kaksi jumped up and down. His parents wanted him to do something important!

“You know how to count, right? How high can you count?”

“I know all numbers up to one million! I am a smart boy!”

His mother smiled again and ruffled his hair.

“I know that, silly! You’re the smartest boy I know! I want you to stand still and count to seven thousands and two hundreds while being invisible. And no skipping!”

“And then? And then?”

He could do that! His mother would be so proud!

“And then, you run to the secret passage that leads out of the castle and continue walking until you find a big black castle.”

“Who lives in the castle?”

“Your uncle. He even has a son your age. There, you just have to give him this letter.” she handed him a black envelope, signed by his father, “And you’re done!”

Oh. BOY! He had an uncle? HE HAD A COUSIN? He could make a friend! His first friend!

“And then can we have cookies? And story time? With my uncle and my cousin?”

“All the cookies you want. The most important thing, though, is this: Never, for no reason, under no circumstance, are you to look back. Are you ready?”

Kaksi nodded eagerly.

“Just one thing, first.” his mother hugged him, “I love you so much. Both your father and me love you very much, so very much. Always remember that.”

She whispered into his ear, sobbing almost inaudibly. Why was his mother crying? She was happy, just a second ago. His mother sometimes cried when she was happy, but they were happy tears. These were sad tears.

His mother let him go and approached the door. She turned, a tear almost invisible at the bottom of her right eye. Kaksi smiled his brightest smile and she smiled back, even if there was a little drop of sadness in it. His mother closed the door and he made himself invisible again.

“One. Two. Three...”

“Good! Fantastic!” Dimentio complimented Mercy, who dropped her invisibility.

“It was easy! Like you said!”

“Of course! I am, after all, perfect! So, also a perfect teacher.”

“I did not say that. Nothing and no one is perfect.”

“Aha. So you challenge me? Maybe I’m not a perfect educator because like a lazy teacher I waited for a test of your abilities on the field. But before that I have a gift for you, like a father who gives his child a present of their birthday.” he produced a beautiful little necklace, “It’s made with your gems from yesterday’s battle training. I had also thought about earrings, but reasoned that you are a bit too young for having your ears pierced. There is always the possibility that the hole gets an infection and-”

“Okay, okay, I understand.”

She took the necklace from Dimentio’s hands and put it on. A snap of Dimentio’s fingers let a mirror appeared, levitating right in front of her. It... was really pretty. It had a central big sapphire, with a yellow topaz and a lapis lazuli on her left, a ruby and an emerald on her right. The metallic part appeared to be made with an adamantine material with little sapphires embedded in it.

“You like it? I made it myself.”

Upon Mercy questioning gaze he elaborated further.

“I have a lot of free time. I do not sleep, usually, and my minions take good care of things. You wouldn’t believe the amount of hobbies I picked up! It’s all so easy, with magic. Apart from knitting.” he frowned ever so slightly, not dropping his eternal smile, “I can’t quite get the hang of that...”

“Can you please stop? I’d prefer to see whatever hellish physical training you’ve set up than stay here and see you demolish my mental image of you. Right now you sound like an overbearing-” Ew. Ew. Why did her brain imagine that? Stop!

“An overbearing what?” Dimentio asked with an amused tone.

“Teacher! An overbearing teacher! An overbearing teacher with a sad empty life.”

“Ow. You hurt me, talking like that, but I can fix that if you want. You imagined me to be a sadistic sociopath, right?”

Mercy hesitantly nodded. She had heard those words before in relation to Dimentio and she wanted to agree, but...

“A person who doesn’t care about others’ well being and enjoys their suffering?”

She nodded more eagerly, even if she still wasn’t sure. She had a bad feeling about this situation. “Aha ha!” Dimentio chuckled darkly, “Well, I can do that”

Without further chatter Dimentio snapped his fingers and they both found themselves in the training room they had fought in the day before.

“I have come!” Dimentio yelled.

Something from beyond one pillar spoke.

“Master... You have the girl?”

“That’s right. You’ve taken a good look at her last time, I hope”

“Yes... I have”

“Wonderful! As we’ve agreed, you can join us if you impress me with that form. Take it and show yourself!”

A shadow in Mercy’s silhouette stepped into the light.

“Is this good, master?”

“Perfect!” Dimentio said and turned to Mercy, “Let me do introductions. Mercy, this is Shadoo, one of the Ancients’ most powerful creations. Right now, it can do whatever it saw you doing yesterday. Shadoo, this is Mercy, the daughter of the current wielder of the Pure Hearts. Mercy, your training today consists in defeating Shadoo. You think you’re ready?”

Mercy nodded resolutely. A copycat? Oh, boy she was going to have fun. There was no way it was going to use her abilities as well as she could!

“Well, then!” Dimentio exclaimed and disappeared, only to reappear at the top of a pillar, sitting on an ornate throne.

He waved an elaborate golden sceptre.

“Let the battle begin!”

Mercy started snapping her neck, yet only managing to incline her head a bit. What the...

“Oh, should have mentioned it. The necklace, when I decide so, restrains you from using your true form. No use in trying to remove it either!” Dimentio calls.

Oh no. Shadoo chuckled.

“I think what you were trying to do was this...”

It twisted its head, wings and claws sprouting from its head. OH NO!

Mercy started running, chased by the flying Shadoo. Dimentio started cackling madly.

‘Seven thousand one hundred ninety-eight. Seven thousand one hundred ninety-nine...’

“Seven thousands two hundreds!”

He did it! Now, he ran towards the door and opened it. When he stepped out of the room, he smelled the weirdest smell. He couldn’t quite put a name on it, but it reminded him of food, so it couldn’t be bad.

Regardless, he went towards the passage. His mom told him not to look back, so he didn’t! He was a good boy! But for every step he took, the strange smell hit him harder and his curiosity grew. What was it? No, he couldn’t look back. Mother would be disappointed! He stopped just on the verge of entering the passageway.

Now the smell was stronger than ever and so was his desire to know its cause. Well, he reasoned with himself, mother told him not to look back. If he turned 180 degrees, he would be looking at his front and not at his back!

‘Kaksi, you’re a genius!’ he complimented himself.

Quickly he ran towards the top of the front gate. Just a quick peek, he told himself, they won’t ever notice! The smell was stronger and stronger. When he found himself at the top of the stairway, he realized what the smell was. Cooking meat? Who was cooking meat? He climbed onto the edge of the wall, being too small to see even on the top of his toes. On the grass field directly in front of the castle, an enormous crowd of humans with torches and pitchforks stood. They surrounded two enormous wooden, flaming structures made of a long sturdy pole, loose pieces of flaming wood lying at its base and whose heat he could feel even at the top of the gate. On each pole, one of his parents were bound, their restricted forms covered in cuts and bruises, both about to be swallowed by the fire.

Kaksi stood in horror. No... Only then did he ear what the people were screaming, spitting in anger.

“Monster!”

“Traitor!”

“Blue skinned freak!”

“Witch!”

“Burn!”

His parents were screaming in pain, but when his mother’s gaze met his, she stopped, staring at him in fear. Kaksi realised then that he must have dropped the invisibility. Otherwise, how could his mother have managed to see him? One part of his brain debates this observation, the logical part that had not yet completely shut down due to the data overload, due to the sight, the yells and the smell. The smell of meat… but not cooked meat, no, burning meat.

His mother mouthed something at him.

‘Run’

He ran. He barely managed to put on his invisibility. He ran.

He didn’t notice the screams of someone in the crowd, who had seen a strange monster children on top of the gate. He ran.

He didn’t notice the sound of people running down the halls. He ran.

He didn’t notice getting in the passageway, his body in autopilot. He ran.

He didn’t notice when he emerged from the passageway, neither when he slammed shut the door nor when he locked it from the outside. He ran.

He didn’t notice the rain, pouring down on him. He ran.

He didn’t notice the hot tears that streamed his face, mixing with the rain droplets. He ran.

He ran and ran until he felt his legs giving up and ran some more, only stopping when he physically couldn’t do any more, his legs collapsed and he fell straight on his face. He curled up in the mud, crying.

There, sleep took him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like what you read, remember to subscribe and maybe leave a review? I can’t improve my writing without those. Bye!


	14. Fight!

Chapter 14: Fight!

Antasma hovered over the small glass dome, countless tubes coming together at its top. Inside of it, the Dark Stone was being powered up by the nightmares of the Pi’illo’s, charged by the tubes’ contents.

“SKRONK! Soon, very soon... it vill be powered up!”

“You’ve been standing there for the last hour saying that. You okay?” the Zeekeeper asked sarcastically from within his golden, enchanted cage, “Ah, no, I forgot you’ve always been a little psychopathic pest!”

Antasma turned sharply, a snarl on his face.

“Shut up, bird! Nov, the Pi’illo’s are my prisoners and you are inside that cage! Vho could save you! SCREONK!”

“I don’t know, little batty. Maybe the Mario Bros.? They did kill you. Or even Bowser, he surely made a fool of you, dude.”

Antasma rolled his eyes.

“Please! My master and the Order are too poverful to be bested by two plumbers and a turtle! And-”

A little ding interrupted him. He turned back to the restored Dark Stone, now fully charged.

“Vonderful! Vonderful! Nov, I vould appreciate you not disturbing me further.”

Antasma waved his hand and all sounds from the Zeekeeper’s cage stopped.

The glass dome began to rise when Antasma approached it. As much as he loathed the bean, he could appreciate Fawful’s technology.

Antasma clutched the Dark Stone into his palm, relishing in its the dark power, letting it take him back to the good days when he had almost won, two times. They said the third time was the charm, didn’t they?

“‘ey, Batty! Come get a good chunking!”

The fortress outside of the Dream Realm shook. Said fortress was an enormous Gothic castle, smaller than Castle Dimentio, but completely black. It took over most of the island, leaving only a small clearing in front of it. A clearing that was devoid of all life, yet it housed the source of the foreign voice.

Antasma was unable to recognize it, but the heroes had some members he had never met, after all. He materialised an ethereal portal to peek out and saw a burly bearded man, who had demolished the castle’s stone door with one punch. Oh.

Antasma panicked. He couldn’t let them free the Pi’illo’s! Immediately he established a mental communication with Fawful. He could help-

The rest of the heroes came into his view. That princess, an unknown girl, a blue skinned man, that he recognized from Dimentio’s briefings as Count Bleck – who Lord Dimentio had insisted he was one of the worst menaces of the group – and...

“Bwahaha! That loser is too scared I’m gonna fool him again! Let’s trash the place!”

On second thought... he would surely be rewarded if he captured Bowser, the count and whoever those other people were.

“Yeah, small problem with that, pest.” commented the Zeekeeper.

Antasma had discovered some time before that, to his dismay, he couldn’t completely annihilate the Zeekeeper’s powers even while they were in the nightmare. He couldn’t threaten Antasma, but he surely was annoying.

“Vhat? Haff you read my thoughts?”

“You were speaking out loud and I would call you a buffoon, but seeing as you work for an actual clown it dawned on me that it would actually be a compliment. As I was saying, you’re one and they are five, and you’re outside of the Dream Realm, where your powers are considerably less effective. You’d need an-”

“Army. You vere saying.” Antasma interrupted him, the Dark Stone pulsing in his claw, “You’re right, I’m in need of something like that. Dark Stone, vith your pover of nightmare, grant me the greatest army the vorld has ever seen!”

“AHHHHHH!” Mercy screamed as she ran, ducking behind pillars every few seconds to dodge shadowy sapphires.

“Ahahahahaha! Oh, you truly never fail to amuse me, Mercy!” Dimentio cackled from his throne, “I haven’t had this much fun in years!”

Mercy shot a sapphire at him, but it was rebound by the Chaos Heart’s protective sheen. A claw passed just a millimetre before her face.

“I think you need to pay more attention... it would be a shame if your face was ruined...” Dimentio frowned ever so slightly, “Remember, Shadoo. No harming her. I just want her subdued.”

“As you wish...”

Mercy used those few seconds of distraction to shoot a sapphire at the shadow, hitting the back of a claw, sending herself tumbling, thankfully outside of Shadoo’s range. She hid behind a column.

“Stop playing hide and seek and surrender...” Shadoo growled in annoyance, “It will be easier for both of us...”

Mercy didn’t move a muscle. Think, think! If Dimentio put her up against Shadoo, it meant there was a way to win! But what was it? She couldn’t tell for the life of her! She felt something on her cheek. A tear.

Not now, not now. She couldn’t, she couldn’t! She had to...

“I found you!” Shadoo screamed, only to claw at nothing, “Could have swore she hid here... Come on! Come out!”

Mercy suppressed a whimper. It felt too much like...

“I know you’re here, somewhere!”

“No... no, no, no” she whispered to herself, a sound that went unheard by all, expect by Dimentio. Was ... was she experiencing..? This should be examinated, he told himself, but he couldn’t interrupt the test. If they found out... if he exposed himself again... no, he couldn’t. He would suffer and she would suffer. Like Pixl, like Mimi. Nobody could know. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t pry into it later. For now, though, she would have to do with another hint.

“Bah. Mercy...” Dimentio sighed, “If I were you, I’d just come out. You can’t win by hiding and it’s going to find you, sooner or later. After all, it’s not like you’re invisible.”

‘Like you’re inv- was he suggesting something?’ Mercy thought, shaking off the dread and wiping her tears. ‘Strong for her’, she remembered. Was Dimentio suggesting she used... But then, Shadoo would also-

‘It can do whatever it saw you doing yesterday’

He had really been giving her hints... She went invisible as soon as she saw Shadoo approaching her hiding spot, making sure that it saw her arm sticking out first. The copycat sneaked next to the column, ready to pounce the little girl. It jumped over the corner and the large claw grabbed for her only to grasp at nothing but thin air.

It barely had any time to process it, when a barrage of small sapphires began hailing down on its back, not dealing any serious damage, but surprising it nonetheless. It turned to search for the cause of the attack and there was the small girl, waving at him with an expression that managed to be both smug and innocent.

Shadoo lunged at her, but Mercy disappeared before its very eyes and it tumbled on the ground due to its own momentum. Another barrage of sapphires hit its back, irritating it.

“What...”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you something as well, Shadoo. I’m forgetting too many things, lately. She is able to go invisible.”

“No matter... I will defeat her...”

Dimentio chuckled. The fight just got spicier! Mercy had finally picked up his not-so-subtle hints and had the strategical advantage, while Shadoo still retained a higher mobility, a higher defence and a higher attack. The outcome would definitely be interesting.

The distraction group stood in front of the castle. Carefully Blumiere approached Bowser.

“Is he coming out? The plan won’t work otherwise.”

“Bah! He is likely too scared! He”

“I haff come, Bovser!” Antasma announced himself in his smaller, real world form, “Nov, surrender, or I’ll haff your heads delivered to Lord Dimentio on a pike!”

He directed his gaze specifically at Bowser.

“Except you. You vill pay for your treachery!”

“Bwahah! Great speech! But I think you forgot one fact.”

“Oh? And vhat would that be?”

“You’re weaker here, I could easily kick your ass alone and you’re outnumbered!”

Antasma grinned sinisterly.

“Vhile the first part may be true, I haff to confirm that your brain is indeed the size of a small pebble. Vhy don’t you count better?”

Antasma opened his cloak and tens of thousands of sharp fanged bats arrowed towards the heroes. In the same moment, thousands of spider-legged Antasmunchies, similar to the ones he had used against the heroes in the Dream World, scurried out of the castle’s gate.

The heroes were taken aback by the sheer size of the army and quickly switched into defensive formation. They wanted Antasma’s attention? They had it now.

Mario and Nastasia sneaked into the Dream World. They had felt Antasma leaving the dimension, but if he suspected anything, he could always return. Or worse... alert Dimentio.

Finally, they arrived in the throne room and they saw the golden cage of the Zeekeeper. Mario knew that Antasma would never resist the temptation to continually gloat in front of his greatest foe, the one that constantly referred to him as nothing more than a pest.

What they weren’t expecting was the black, cracked stone resting on a pillar at the centre of the room.

“What is that?” Nastasia asked.

“The Dark Stone... It’s very similar to the Dream Stone, but it was destroyed... they must have put it back together.”

“If it grants wishes, let’s just take it, k?”

“I have the afraidness I have the unability to let you have the stealing of the Stone of Darkness...”

Mario and Nastasia spun around. Behind them, none other than Fawful stood, sporting his signature headgear, yet instead of the usual spiral glasses he wore a dark visor.

“Becausing I’ll have the stealing of it! Rurururu! And don’t even have the trying of hypnotizing me!” he tapped his visor, “I had the preparing, for I have the being of a genius of evilness!”

“Nastasia! Go and free the Zeekeeper! I’ll defeat Fawful!” Mario whipped up his hammer, “Let’s-a-go!”

Bowser roasted a storm of bats with his fiery breath, only to have another one swarm at him.

“Gah! A little help here?”

Blumiere destroyed the Antsamunchie he was dealing with in a swift motion of his sceptre, then sent an explosive spell towards the Koopa King. Bowser was given a fraction of a second to duck, turning his shell at the explosion that obliterated the bats.

“What was that? Are you trying to kill me?”

“It was the only way!” Blumiere snarled, before being attacked by another giant group of Antasmunchies, “They won’t stop coming!”

“It’s because of Antasma!” Timpani, who was fighting alongside Peach with her light magic, replied, “He’s generating them!”

It was true, Bowser realized. The bat was just standing there, hovering over the gate while hordes of minions rushed to add themselves to the sea of opponents surrounding the heroes. There must be something he could do! A lightbulb lit up in Bowser’s head. What if..?

“I’m about to take one for the team! Hey, Batty!”

“Vhat, pathetic, helpless turtle? You vant to surrender? Do not illude yourself. Your punishm-”

“Yes, yes, you’re so evil, we get that. It’s starting to get old. Can we get to the part where I destroy you?”

“Ah! You vant to challenge me directly. Ah ah ah. Not happening, Bowser. You might, in your stupidity, believe myself to be-”

“What? More stupid than me? You got betrayed by this idiot after all. Gwahah!”

“That matters not. Because I vill-”

“Be betrayed again? I’ll manage to do that even when we’re not on the same side!”

“Stop interrupting! SCREEK. You’re even more-” Antasma snarled annoyed.

“Or what? You’ll get betrayed even harder?”

Antasma visibly trembled in rage.

“Stop! For you are meddling with the King of-”

“Getting betrayed? I already know tha-”

“REEEEEE!” Antasma screeched, flying towards Bowser at an impressive speed.

He picked up the turtle with his clawed feet and punching and clawed at his face, all strategy forgotten in his rage. Bowser expected an attack, but Antasma’s fury surprised him nonetheless. For about two seconds. He managed to punch out the lights in Antasma with one hit. The bat barely held onto consciousness, when Bowser piledrived him into the ground, his hard shell colliding with his foe’s head.

Antasma’s army dispelled on the spot.

“Gwahah! That hurt a bit, but it was so worth it! Did somebody film it? I need it on tape or Junior will never believe me!” Bowser cheered, not noticing Antasma’s rising form.

“Look out Bowser!” Peach screamed, but it was too late.

“This isn’t over!” Antasma hissed, charging the Koopa King once again.

This time his momentum carried them directly through an awaiting portal into the Dream World. ‘Oh shit’, was all Bowser managed to think before it swallowed him.

“Have the working, you piece of junking!” Fawful screamed, furiously hitting his headgear and adding new dents to where Mario hit him.

He had some bruises himself, not that Mario, who was clutching his arm and was currently being bitten by the Headgear’s mouth, was faring any better.

“Surrender Fawful!”

“Never, hat of red!” Fawful growled, his headgear roaring back to life, “You had the killing of my mistress! You had the killing of me! I HAVE FURY!”

A volley of rockets targeted Mario. He deviated them with his hammer, as Fawful expected. That was why, while Mario was distracted, he shot his ray gun square into the plumber’s chest.

“Rururu! This fight had the tastefulness of a good bowl of chips!” Fawful snatched the Dark Stone and aimed his ray gun at the downed Mario’s head, “Too many chips have the badness. Have the dying, hat of-”

Fawful was interrupted by the familiar shape of one of Antasma’s portals. Acting quick, he stomped on his ray gun and threw himself on the ground. As he expected, Antasma came through the portal and, to Fawful’s surprise, Bowser came too.

“Have the helping of me! Mario had the stealing of the Stone of Darkness!”

“Oh, come on! You’re not actually expecting him to-”

“But of course! Of course Bovser vould trick me again! Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me tvice... I vill-”

“Mario!” Nastasia yelled, running towards the red plumber, “The Zeekeeper has told me something us- ugh!”

She barely dodged Antasma’s energy blast that he had hurled at her.

“Vhat is it that makes everyone interrupt me today? I vill destroy you!”

Nastasia lowered her glasses.

“Calm down, k?”

Antasma went limp.

“Calm... scree”

“We need to get out of here!” Bowser said as they all grouped together, teleporting alongside Mario.

There was a zapping sound and, when they were on the other side, they found Nastasia was no longer with them.

Mercy tumbled to the ground, hit again by Shadoo’s claw.

“It was a good trick... but your attacks are too weak to actually matter. You’ve obviously trained... but it isn’t enough.”

Mercy ducked beneath the incoming volley of sapphires. She knew it was right, she didn’t affect it in the slightest!

“Ahah. Looks like you have to give up, Mercy.”

She had given proof of her abilities nonetheless, having managed to evade the conflict and that was what he wanted to see of her today. Then Mercy dropped her invisibility, standing right between a column and Shadoo, and suddenly Dimentio had a bad feeling.

Shadoo frustratedly shot an exploding sapphire at Mercy that she dodged with ease. The sapphire hit the column. Dimentio saw the cracks spreading in the stone before Mercy and Shadoo did. He raised his hand, but found himself again unable to do anything.

The pillar was going to collapse! He wanted to speak, to alert Mimi’s daughter, he couldn’t fail her too! Then he saw him.

No.

Impossible. B-Blumiere killed him! That was-

And yet, there the King stood, on top of the pillar. The red eyes shining, his expression mocking him.

 _You didn’t save them. You didn’t save her. You didn’t save the other, either. You’ll fail her, too._ The voice whispered in his head, sounding just like the last time he had seen him.

Dimentio couldn’t move a muscle, because suddenly he was young again, he was scared again, the smell of burning meat was in the air, a metallic green crown and a red hat laid on the ground and-

The pillar collapsed.

Green blocks rained onto the floor.

Dimentio threw himself into the arena, his magic returning to him just before he made impact with the ground. He rushed into the chaos of stone and dust, searching frantically.

Not her too, not her too!

He found her. Her eyes closed, unmoving. She was covered with bruises, blood oozing from some of the most serious ones

He picked her up and teleported away


	15. Death of Something Old, Birth of Something New

Chapter 15: Death of Something Old, Birth of Something New

The boy stood in the room, his old clothes already discarded, his new ones on the small bed, reminding him of what had transpired just some days ago.

“Come.”

The dirt-stained boy walked towards the throne, the room cast in the shadows that characterized the castle.

“What is your name?”

The boy whispered something, so low that it was inaudible.

“Speak louder, boy.”

“Kaksi.” the boy’s raspy voice echoed, strained by days of disuse, of running and hiding.

He offered a letter in the direction of the man sitting on the throne.

“My father wanted you to have this.”

The man nodded and one of the guards stepped forward from the shadows, the boy staying completely motionless when the guard took the letter. Handing the piece of paper to the man on the throne, the guard disappeared back into the shadows. The letter was opened and read, the boy still unmoving. After a while, the man stored the letter in one of his jacket’s internal pockets.

“I take that they’re dead.”

A nod, with just the minimal hint of a tremble.

“You saw it with your own eyes?”

Another nod, coming with what the man thought was a muffled whimper.

“Hm. I can’t say I’m surprised. My older brother paid for what he chose, running off with that human.”

The last word was filled with spite. Yet the boy continued to stand still, the rage he was sure he should have felt at his uncle’s words replaced by void.

“Now that it took care of itself, what should we do with you? You are a hybrid. To fulfil the purpose that our ancestors bestowed upon us, we must be the strongest mages. We can’t afford to be weak. You’re a halfbreed, your magic is watered down. You’re the very symbol of what our ancestors have warned us of… a weak new generation. Your mere existence is an insult! I had hoped that my brother’s union was just his foolish delusion of true love, that nothing would originate from it.” the man rose from his seat and a sceptre with a red gem appeared in his hand, “I should kill you. Yes.”

He pointed the gem towards the head of the boy, a dark spell forming at its top. Kaksi didn’t move, didn’t so much as flinch.

“I won’t, though. No. You’re already dead. You’re just pretending to be living.” he dispelled the dark spell and retracted his sceptre, “I shall keep an eye on you, however. You will serve here in the castle. I have just the position for someone like you.”

Kaksi started dressing himself, the words of his uncle echoing in his head. He put on the long, black gloves, a black shirt, black pants and black boots.

_‘Your disgusting, pale skin, proof of the forbidden union of light and darkness, shall be covered with black, because that is what you are. A black spot in our Tribe’s history.’_

The purple and yellow gown came soon after, followed by the matching jester hat.

‘ _Your very existence is a joke. For that, I have the perfect position. You’ll serve as a jester. To be ridiculed for the amusement of others.’_

Finally, the last piece of clothing, if it could be called as such. A ceramic mask, half white, half black, a static smile on it. With an equally static, but neutral, expression. Kaksi slipped it on.

_‘Finally, your face. The face is what defines a person, what gives it individuality. You won’t have that. You are not a person, you are only a beast, living only technically.’_

“You are no more Kaksi. You are the, no, you are _a_ jester.”

Thus, Kaksi died. Something else would be reborn in his stead, but that would have to wait for several years. For now, a corpse wandered the halls, covered by two masks.

Mimi laid on her bed, staring at the pink ceiling in anger. Those stupid heroes...

“Knock knock...” whispered a voice in her ear, she turned, startled, and of course, who else could it be but...

“Dimentio!” she growled, “What do you want?”

“Oh, it was you that told me to knock if I came into your room.”

“Knock. On. The. Door. Not in my ear!”

“Ahaha. You didn’t specify! So, I assumed it was up for interpretation, like when someone says ‘Please kill me’. Sometimes they mean it literally, but at other times as I’ve discovered through the years, they’re ‘joking’. Aha ha. Bizarre, I know. Did you do something with your hair? It is quite lovely today.”

Mimi pulled a face.

“Dimentio... my hair is the same as always. I never change it.”

“I meant your dress. Your dress is lovely.”

“Thanks?”

“So, we have both been defeated by the heroes recently. What do you think about having a... meeting session later in my room? It would certainly help our performances. We could even stitch together some strategy to defeat them.”

“Uhh, sure?”

Now, Mimi wasn’t certain what was happening. Dimentio had been avoiding her for weeks, since the whole debacle with the Dark Prognosticus, and now he approached her for this? He was definitely planning to kill her. She had to buy time and-

“Shall we say, right now?”

Well, shucks. They teleported into Dimentio’s room. The table from last time was still there, but Dimentio’s papers and the Dark Prognosticus were nowhere to be seen. In their stead, a vase with a vibrant green rose, a candle and a plate of what appeared to be appetizers stood.

Was he trying to kill her with poison?

She gave him a puzzled look and he answered to the unspoken question.

“It has occurred to me that we haven’t had the most pleasant relationship recently. I plan on rectifying that, starting with this little gift, like ancient heroes who are departing from the city they had unsuccessfully sieged for years leave a wooden horse for the defenders as a farewell gift.”

“Didn’t that end poorly?”

“Oh, yes. The horse was a trap and the city was rapidly overtaken and destroyed, leading to the game over of all inhabitants while the siegers, having depleted all their resources, were easily conquered by barbaric populations that sent their entire civilisation plummeting into oblivion and their whole country into a dark age that lasted several centuries.”

Dimentio continued smiling, sending shivers down Mimi’s spine. Noticing it, Dimentio explained himself.

“Aha ha ha. Sorry. I rather like the tales of ruin and destruction. You want to know why?”

“You are a sadist that enjoys seeing the slaughter of entire populations?”

“Tough words for somebody who wants to destroy all worlds, but no. The reason is that only from destruction something new and better can be reborn. The civilization that had fallen was a militaristic autocracy, but several centuries later, one city in particular was born from its ashes. A city that became a beacon of freedom, arts and enlightenment. This is the reason why I do not think that the ruin of a civilization is something to cry upon.” Dimentio shrugged, “That, and I do like death and destruction. Aha ha!”

Mimi jumped and whacked him on his head.

“You dummy! You were saying something nice! Then you ruined it all!”

Dimentio smiled more, minimally annoyed by the unwanted physical contact.

“Ah, Mimi, I certainly missed our squabblings, like a tired old man who awaits the neighbour’s kids’ ball to land in his backyard to have human interaction.”

“Whatever, I can’t. I’ve been trying a new diet and-” Mimi stopped abruptly when the odour hit her nostrils “I-Is that-”

 _“_ Old Cheese? Indeed!” Dimentio chuckled, dangling one of the appetizers in front of Mimi’s nose.

It was a simple treat, just a thin cracker with some soft cheese on top.

“I understood from your diary that you happen to enjoy its smell. But please, take a seat.”

Mimi did as Dimentio asked and immediately sank her teeth into one of the treats.

“This is so good!”

“Why, Mimikins, thank you. Just the minimum I can do to excuse my past behaviour. I made these myself. It was easy, with magic. The only thing that gave me trouble was the old cheese. You see, I can create cheese, but to have it aged? It’s a whole different matter. In the end, I searched for a collector. People collect anything and I found a person who had this 300 years old cheese.”

“300 years old?” Mimi couldn’t believe her own ears, “How much did you pay for it!?”

“Oh, nothing at all. I simply killed the collector and stole his collection. These are pretty good, aren’t they?”

“Ha ha, Dimentio, this one was... good? But seriously...”

Dimentio continued smiling eerily and inclined his head a little.

“I assure you, my dear, that I am deadly serious.”

Mimi froze on her seat. Did he... just admit to a murder?

“Aha ha ha! You should see your face, Mimikins! No, I didn’t murder him. I simply teleported him to the other side of the planet and stole everything.”

“You dummy!” Mimi growled.

“I’m sorry, Mimikins, but like an ancient knight in a duel, I saw an opening and took it. And what fun it was! Aha ha!”

“It wasn’t funny!”

“We can agree to disagree, Mimikins. But enough squabbling, even if I so adore toying with you like a cat toys with its captured prey. I was thinking of a way to hinder the heroes further...”

Many hours passed, hours of scheming against the heroes and hours of simply talking.

After returning to her room, Mimi discovered something strange. She was smiling.


	16. Enters Wario’s Vault

Chapter 16: Enter Wario’s Vault

Lord Blumiere laid on his bed, looking at the ceiling, his usual top hat discarded on the ground.

“Knock knock!”

Blumiere sighed.

“Come in, Mario.”

The plumber, without his usual red hat, stepped inside. 

“Hello, Blumiere. Are you-”

“Any news on Nastasia?” Blumiere asked without even moving.

“No,” Mario replied in a sombre tone, “but I’m-a sure she-”

“One day. We haven’t heard of her in one day!” Blumiere snarled, sitting up, “Don’t give me that ‘she is going to be fine’!” 

He then sighed and continued apologetically. 

“I’m sorry, hero. I shouldn’t get angry at you, given that this is all my fault. I summoned the Chaos Heart, I didn’t notice Dimentio’s scheming and... what happened between Mimi and Dimentio...”

“Nobody could predict it.” Mario said, an encouraging smile on his lips, “Now we’ve lost contact with Nastasia? She’s smart and she’s got her hypnosis powers, she’s going to be all right.”

“How do you do it? I mean, this isn’t the first time you’ve dealt with a total annihilation menace pending on you. I’ve managed to lose to you when I had one, Grambi, Dimentio would have if not for... that thing. You always come out on top and you always seem so sure of winning. Are you that sure of yourself?”

Mario chuckled.

“I’m not. I simply trust my friends. I know that together we’re smarter, stronger and faster than any bad guy out there. We’re going to defeat Dimentio again.”

“I’d like to have your faith, but-”

“Mario! Count” Toad called from outside the room.

“It’s Blumiere.” Blumiere corrected him annoyed.

“What is it, Toad?”

“Nastasia! She’s back!”

“I believe we can start this meeting, k?” Nastasia announced.

The room before her simply nodded. Nastasia had simply appeared inside the base and insisted that she had information that needed to be shared immediately.

“You surely want to know where I was this day.”

“Yes.” Blumiere intervened, “That would be important.”

“I can’t say, because I don’t actually know. I can say I was with an... ally. He asked not to be identified and never showed his face, but I believe he can be trusted.”

“Where is this... ally?” Peach asked.

“He left me inside the base. He, however, is not important. What is important is what the Zeekeeper told me.” she took a deep breath, “There is no way of rebuilding the Dream Stone.”

All the room erupted in yells and protests.

“There is however another wish granting item, the Dream Coin.”

“Didn’t the Zeekeeper use that to create a never ending rain of money?” Mario asked.

“Yes, the Zeekeeper told me that Wario took all the coins. If we collect all of them, they could be used to recreate the Dream Coin.”

“Bah! How many of them?”

“1 billion.”

Bowser’s eyes widened to the size of pans.

“We are never going to be able to steal that much! Not from Wario!” 

“We have to try!” Mario argued, “We can’t-a just let Dimentio win!”

Bowser growled.

“I know that, plumber! What you don’t know is how Wario’s vault is built! Located in a volcanic wasteland, guarded by exiled Koopas, criminals that I exiled, and Wario’s pet, Goldie, guarding his hoard of gold! What, do you expect to get in there ringing the bell? With the spare key he leaves under the doormat?”

“Are you sure we can do this? It looks too easy.”

The duo was standing in front of Wario’s vault’s backdoor. 

Waluigi shrugged.

“Wah! Have I ever been wrong?”

“All the time.” Mr L deadpanned, “When you argued that Bob-Ombs were a viable power source. When you used a tennis racket as a wrench. That time when you destroyed Brobot.”

“Wah! How wah-s I supposed to know that the big red button labelled ‘Self Destruction’ in Wahbot’s cockpit would destroy Wahbot?”

Mr L facepalmed.

“Wah! Wah-tever. Look at this!” Waluigi put his hand underneath the doormat and plucked a key from there.

He inserted it into the lock and Mr L looked away, shielding his face with his hands. He hadn’t blown up in a few days now. He had wanted to keep it that way. The door simply opened and Waluigi stepped inside, hesitantly followed by Mr L.

“C’mon! Chicken!” Waluigi mocked him.

“What!?” Mr L fumed, “The Green Thunder doesn’t know the meaning of fear!” 

To prove himself, Mr L launched himself forward. Only to be hit by a swinging hammer, a series of floor mounted flamethrowers and a landmine – all in succession.

“Wah... I forgot about those.”

“Wahahaha!” Wario laughed, “So this is the new guy? I like him! Wah!”

Mr L rolled his eyes. Oh boy.

“Nastasia!” Blumiere called the blue woman, who stopped dead in her tracks.

He approached her slowly. By the time he reached her, they were the only ones in the base’s common room. Nastasia finally gained the courage to speak. 

“Y-yes, C-Lord Blumiere?”

Blumiere didn’t pay any mind to the slip-up. 

“As I said many times before, you can drop the Lord, Nastasia. You’re probably my most loyal m-al-friend.”

Nastasia smiled imperceptibly, the corners of her mouth curled up just by a fraction of a millimetre.

“Alright... you wanted to ask me something. Let’s see if I can answer, k?”

Blumiere smiled, too, a sight that warmed up Nastasia’s heart. 

“I wanted to ask about that... ally you mentioned earlier.”

“W-what about him...”

“I can’t shake off the feeling that you didn’t tell us everything about him.”

Nastasia bit her bottom lip. 

“He asked me not to tell any of you anything about him...”

Blumiere nodded. 

“Alright. I have another question, then. Do you trust him?”

Nastasia was confused. 

“Wha- what do you mean, Blumiere?”

“Do you think we should trust him?”

Nastasia hesitated for a second, then nodded with a serious look.

“I... believe that he’ll help us.”

Blumiere smiled warmly. 

“We shall trust him, then. I trust you.”

The blue skinned man went his way, only stopping when Nastasia called him.

“Blumiere...”

“Yes?”

“He said ‘I’m just trying to help my little Blu’, if that helps.”

Blumiere froze. That reminded him awfully of... no, it must be a coincidence. 

“T-thanks Nastasia.”

No, it couldn’t be **him** , right?

“So... how did you two meet?”

Mr L was sitting with Wario and Waluigi in a small bar-like room, sipping on something alcoholic Wario assured was ‘100 % illegal’. Waluigi had opted for some grape juice.

“It wah-sn’t a big deal.” Wario answered with a shrug, “I had been Mario’s nemesis for some years, but I needed a partner to humiliate him in a double tennis tournament. I placed an announcement in a newspaper for a dark version of Luigi and/or someone able to pay tennis.”

“And he wah-s impressed by my capacities, by ME, THE GREAT WALUIGI! WALUIGI NUMBER ONE! WAHAHAHA!”

“He was the only one to show up. Then, after we got our asses handed to us on a platter, he kind of... stuck around. My gramps always said to never feed strays, because they’re going to stick around, but I never figured out why he kept coming back.”

“Wah-ell, reason number wah-ne, the pay was really great!” Waluigi got closer to Mr L, “He pays me 200 Wah-bucks per week! I never earned so much before! I’ve never had a pay before, in fact...”

Mr L looked at Wario, puzzled and mouthed ‘Wah-bucks?’ Wario nodded and whispered into L’s ear. 

“I kinda... wrote some bills on some pieces of paper and told him it was real money.”

L pushed him away and gave Wario the stink eye.

“Wah-t? You don’t really think that I would pay him with real money, right?”

“Wah-t are you talking about?” Waluigi asked.

“Nothing, nothing” Wario assured him, “You were saying?”

“Wah!! Yes. The second reason is because I quite liked creating mischief and going against Luigi! It sure beats living in my old, abandoned mansion with nothing to do but watch old records of tennis tournaments, playing squash, reading about the Mario Bros. and being ignored by the neighbours that constantly referred to me as the creepy lanky guy.”

Mr L gave Wario a look, that he returned. Wario cleared his voice.

“So, Mr L, was it?”

“The one and only! The Green Thunder!” 

“So, why all this ‘Luigi-but-opposite-thing’? I mean, you already got the whole lightning powers and big ass robot, if Waluigi’s word can be trusted.”

“Well, I actually was Luigi. Nastasia, one of Count Bleck’s minions, brainwashed Luigi into being his polar opposite and I was born. At one point, Dimentio killed me after I failed and, just some days ago, created this new form from scratch.”

Wario whistled.

“So, you basically hate him because you, unlike him, love yourself and he is your opposite?”

Mr L grumbled.

“It’s more like I hate the heroes because they preferred that useless plumber over me!”

Waluigi laughed. 

“Bah! Wah! You have nothing over the Great Waluigi! Not even the backstory! Wahahaha!”

“Well, let’s hear it, then, Great Waluigi” Mr L answered sarcastically.

“Wah! Prepare to be amazed!”

He cleared his voice. 

“It all started back when I was living at my mansion. I liked reading about how the Mario Bros. defeated Bowser a lot and I grew to admire Luigi specifically.”

“Seriously?” Mr L asked, “What did you see in him? He’s so... Luigi. He’s the player two.”

“Wah! At the time, I thought that he was great! He was an underdog that still kicked ass! Seriously, what could Mario have achieved without him?”

“Literally the majority of everything? Luigi is just Mario’s shadow!” 

“Wah-ll, that’s not so true. Luigi is like Waluigi and he is... useful. He makes a nice pasta.” Wario intervened. 

“The secret is my special spice: Waluigi Thyme!”

“And, let’s say...” Wario continued, “mischief wouldn’t be half as fun without him. He’s a fun guy.”

“Wah! Thank you, Wario! So, I used to really like Luigi and I sent him an anonymous letter, asking if I could join the Mario Bros. and if they could meet me at Delfino Plaza! And he actually answered! He said yes! And said he would gladly meet me! So, the next day I went there and waited, but he never showed up! He tricked me! Wah! He had made a fool out of me! He doesn’t deserve to be the hero of the underdogs. I, the Great Waluigi, will be! So, when Wario posted that announcement, I took it as my opportunity to get my revenge! Wahahaha!”

Mr L made an unimpressed face. 

“That’s it? It probably isn’t even real.”

“Wah! It is!”

“I agree with the other evil Luigi clone. Luigi and Mario are too good to do something like that. It’s probably something you made up.”

“Wah! It’s not! Look!” Waluigi extracted a sheet of paper from his jumpsuit, “It’s Luigi’s answer!”

Mr L took it. 

“It’s definitely Luigi’s handwriting. No doubt on that. So, he is a fraud. Wasn’t expecting that.”

“Waluigi never lies to his bros.” Waluigi boasted, “It’s the code!”

“Code?”

Wario nodded. 

“We figured we could trick others much better if we didn’t betray each other. Rule number 1: Never betray or lie to a member of the Wa-squad.”

“I am not a member, yet Waluigi has never tricked me.”

“That’s because” Waluigi put his hand on Mr L’s shoulder, “I like you! So you’re a member! You are an antagonist that mirrors Mario and Luigi, so you are qualified!”

Mr L smiled. 

“Well, I- thank you! I’ll gladly accept! I’ll be the new leader!”

“Wah! What do you mean ‘new leader’? You’re the new guy!”

“Yeah, Wario is the leader! Wahahah!”

“No, Waluigi is! Waluigi is Number One!” 

“You two idiots would get your ass kicked! Oh, wait, you already did! The Green Thunder is the way!”


	17. Waking Up

Chapter 17: Waking Up

“-are, you hear me? Find me a doctor this instant! Do you wish to be thrown into the void?”

“Master... I... am profoundly sorry. I really am... you brought me back... and-”

“I don’t want to hear any of your squabbling. Now scram and find me someone. If she dies... Grambi and Jaydes might need a replacement for her soul for when I go get her back. You’ll be probably thrown into the Underthere, while she will surely go to the Overthere, but you will have to suffice.”

“Master-”

“Are you still here? Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Do you want to hear the details of your slow and painful death?”

“No, I’ll go!” 

A warping sound could be heard. Mercy stirred, catching Dimentio’s attention. 

“Mercy, dearest? Are you alright?”

Mercy groaned. 

“It hurts...” she murmured, not really talking about a specific part of her body. 

Everything hurt. Dimentio stroked Mercy’s hair, causing a shiver to travel down her spine.

“I know, little one. You gave me quite the fright, didn’t you? I feared that I lost you too.” he whispered, careful not to disturb the recovering little girl with an unpleasant volume.

Mercy attempted moving, only to be physically restrained by Dimentio. 

“Oh, I am afraid I can’t let you do that. You still need to recover.”

“‘m fine, really.” she mumbled, knowing herself she was lying.

“No, you’re not. You very much need to replenish your forces. Despite what my mother showed me, I’ve never been good at healing magic.”

“Mother?”

“Why yes, I had parents. You would think that something as evil as me would have spawned from the darkest of stars, already adult and sporting a moustache to twirl, like a villain from an old cartoon, but... yes, I had a mother. Talking about mothers. Would you like to hear a tale from those famous six years ago? It is obviously about your mother, a situation where she made me worry almost as much as you did today! Care to hear or do you still think that I’m too evil to tell a tale to a lovely, little lady such as you?”

Mercy thought about it for a second. 

“Fine. But I’ll check later...”

“Aha. Of course. You would have disappointed me otherwise.” Dimentio summoned Mimi’s diary into his hand, “It starts in this very infirmary, back when this was still Castle Bleck. Your mother was lying on a bed, much like you...”

“Wha-” Mimi muttered, rising up to a sitting position. 

She felt dizzy and her head was pulsing.

“Oh, you are awake. Good.”

“Nastasia?” Mimi asked, noticing the blue woman sitting on a chair right next to her bed. 

She handed her a glass of water. 

“Drink this, k?”

Only then Mimi noticed how thirsty she was, so she took the glass and gulped it down. Nastasia just barely smiled. 

“How do you feel?”

“Bad. Everything spins, my head hurts. Can I have some more water?”

Nastasia nodded and poured Mimi another glass from a small bottle, handing it to her together with a small pill.

“It’s a light painkiller. The count told me not to, but I sneaked in one.”

Mimi smiled and took the pill, downing it with the water. 

“Thank you.” she whispered.

“I’m not the only one you have to thank. Dimentio brought you in and Dimentio is currently distracting the count.”

“What happened?”

“What do you remember?”

“Dimentio suggested that me and L go and distract the heroes so that the void damages the Pure Heart. I remember that the stupid princess beat me again and that the void was destroying the dimension, but after that? Nothing.”

Nastasia nodded.

“It confirms what Dimentio told us. Your dangerous, stupid plan worked. The Pure Heart was damaged, probably beyond repair. You were, however, hit by a piece of debris and passed out. If it wasn’t for Dimentio, the void would have gotten you.”

“Dimentio?”

“Apparently, he was watching and went in to save you just in time. Which is the bare minimum, considering you wouldn’t have been there in the first place if it wasn’t for him.” Nastasia started looking at a random point of the wall in front of her, then cleared her voice “So... since when?”

“...what?”

Nastasia gulped lightly, obviously uncomfortable. 

“You and Dimentio. You weren’t exactly subtle, disappearing into his room for hours.”

Mimi’s eyes widened. Did... did she know about Dimentio stealing the Dark Prognosticus? Of course she did! Oh crap, Dimentio would kill her! Literally! 

Okay, Mimi, don’t lose your cool, remember you’re a master deceiver. 

“Uhh... I have no idea what you are talking about.” 

Mimi mentally slapped herself. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about?’ What was she, six?

“Mimi, I thought there shouldn’t be secrets between us. I know what you are doing. It was difficult to even consider the possibility, but... what else could be the case?”

Crap, crap, crap. Now Nastasia would report them to the Count and they would be both thrown out and Dimentio would murder her in a horrible and-

“You have to understand why I was so sceptical, k? Dimentio being in a relationship was hard enough to even think about and he doesn’t actually seem your type...”

Many emotions flowed through Mimi. First came confusion. What was Nastasia talking about… Then understanding, her implications hit her like the proverbial ton of bricks. She thought that Dimentio and she were...

A fleeting moment of relief blessed her, before being stampeded by a wave of embarrassment that flushed her cheeks red. She thought that Dimentio and she were dating! 

But it was the last emotion, that rose slowly like the tide, that surprised her. Logically, she should feel outraged, maybe even disgusted. Dimentio had constantly harassed her for weeks, had threatened to kill her and forced her to take part in something that could have Countie kick her out for! And he wasn’t even her type! Yes, he had a charming, mysterious side, but he also told awful jokes, played stupid pranks and was generally annoying. That was without even considering the fact that he was a dangerous psychopath with murderous tendencies – she didn’t want to open that can of worms!

So, why were her cheeks warming up even more, why was she feeling fuzzy in her chest and why were her palms sweaty at the sole thought of her and Dimentio being together? She suddenly started to remember her recent meeting with Dimentio, how he had shown another side, a warmer one, almost caring.

Nastasia smiled at her, half wryly, half sympathetically. 

“I knew it... just be careful, k? Dimentio... I don’t trust him...”

Mimi shook her head to clear her thoughts and drowned her confusing feelings.

“I-I’ll remember that, Nassi.”

Only then did something hit her. 

“Where is Mr L? Is he fine?”

Nastasia bit her upper lip, her eyes averting Mimi’s. 

“Mr L... he is-”

“Don’t, Nastasia.” ordered a voice. 

Dimentio’s voice. The jester appeared, teleporting at the foot of the bed.

“After all, it is my fault. I will take this heinous task upon myself.”

Nastasia nodded and adjusted her glasses.

“Fair. I’ll leave now. Is the count...”

“Still in his office. My advice? Bring him a throat lozenge. After all that shouting, his throat must be killing him.”

Nastasia nodded and took her leave. Only then did Dimentio turn to Mimi.

“Mimikins! I haven’t had the chance to ask you of your well being! How are you feeling?”

‘I’m having an emotional crisis, how are you?’

“Mostly fine. Still have a little headache, but I took a painkiller. Thanks for that.”

“Nonsense. After all, it is my fault you’re in that bed to begin with.”

“So, what happened to L? Where is he?”

Dimentio’s expression softened up. 

“Mimi dear... you and L had a bond, right?”

“We were friends.”

Dimentio nodded.

“I’m truly sorry then. Mimi... L... didn’t make it.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“He must have fought valiantly, but by the time I had gotten back to the World of Nothing, he had already been defeated. I was too far away to do anything. I tried to save him, but the man in red was too fast. If only I had been a little faster...” Dimentio sighed, “What I’m trying to say is that the heroes gave L a game over.”

Dread filled Mimi. 

“No... you’re lying...”

Dimentio’s gaze lowered. 

“I’m sorry, Mimi... I wish it was that way... but I speak the truth.”

Tears started flowing down Mimi’s cheeks and she spoke, her voice broken. 

“No... no... it’s all my fault...”

Dimentio went up to her side and started caressing her hair

“Don’t be silly, Mimikins. You only gave him the idea and he accepted it. You want to blame someone? Blame the heroes. They are the ones who killed him.”

Mimi leaned into the touch, making Dimentio freeze for barely a fraction of a second. 

“I know... but-”

Dimentio shushed her, his finger on her lips. 

“No, no, no. I don’t want to hear no buts.” he dried her cheek with his hand, “There, there. You look much better.”

Dimentio sat down on the bed. 

“You know, death is such a beautiful and mysterious thing, but I don’t know of a more impressive end than dying for something. L’s Brobot was destroyed, but when I got there, he was still fighting. He gave his all for a perfect world. That, I can respect. He sacrificed his life for it, so the least we can do is help the count make it possible!”

“That’s what he would have wanted?” a faint smile found its place onto Mimi’s lips, “Yes. Thank you, Dim.”

“Dim?” Dimentio asked, humoured.

“You have your nickname for me, so I made mine for you. I think, Dim suits you.”

Dimentio chuckled. 

“I love it, Mimikins!”

Dimentio closed the diary. 

“And that’s it. Did you like the story?”

“You lied to her! Uncle Mario would never kill someone!”

Dimentio stiffened at Mario’s title. 

“I can assure you. That plumber is capable of horrible things, but, I believe that, since I told you a story, I am entitled to get one from you, am I not?”

“That’s... not how it works, but fine. What story do you want?”

“Hm, this is a though choice. I could ask you one about your mother. I’ve dearly missed her, but I think I’ll settle with the story behind your near break down yesterday.”

Mercy’s heart stopped.

“...what?”

“Don’t play dumb, it doesn’t suit you. No, I want to know what brought you to tears yesterday because, my dear, that simply won’t do. Your mother would probably hunt me down if I made you cry.”

“I’m... not...”

“Comfortable with sharing what is probably a highly traumatic experience? I can... relate to that. It’s your choice, after all. But I can’t help you if I’m blind, like a blindfolded bus driver.”

Mercy hesitated. It was his fault after all. She took a choice. 

“Fine. I’m not good at telling stories, though.”

Dimentio shrugged.

“That’s no matter. Hold still.” he put a hand on her forehead, “This won’t hurt a bit”. 

His voice dropped to a whisper.

“Probably.” 

A bright light blinded Mercy.

“I know they’re here, somewhere! Search better!” a voice snarled, followed by a thump, “I want Mimi and I want her now! Understood?”

“Y-yes, Lord Dimentio. It shall be done.”

Mercy whimpered, the four year old girl trying to curl on herself and to get smaller, as if she wanted to disappear.

“Mercy? Are you a-okay?” a familiar voice asked.

Mercy lifted up her head and looked at the worried face of Mario. She made a grabbing motion with her hands. 

“Please, Uncle... I’m scared...” she sniffled, her voice at the lowest volume she could muster.

Mario picked her up, hugging her, and patted her back reassuringly. 

“Don’t worry. They won’t find us.”

“B-but if they do? They will take away Mama, you, Uncle Luigi and-”

“Mercy.” Mario interrupted her holding her in front of his face, “They won’t. I promise you. We’ll defeat the bad guys and go on. We’ve always won, after all.”

Mercy nodded and the phantom of a smile appeared on her lips. 

“Like you always tell? Like in your stories?”

Mario smiled and ruffled her hair. 

“Exactly, princess. But I need you to do something very important. Will you help me?”

Mercy nodded eagerly. 

“I can help you fight the bad guys? Uncle Blu says I’m getting better with my sapphires!”

Mario chuckled.

“I think it’s a bit too early for that. You can help us in another way. Do you think your mother is worried?”

“Well, yes. Dimentio wants to capture her! It’s scary!”

“What do you think would happen if she saw you like this?”

Mercy lowered her gaze. 

“S-she would get more worried...”

“Do you want that?”

“N-no! I want her to be happy!”

“You could help her with that. If she sees you happy, she would be happier, no?”

“But I’m not happy...”

Mario smiled sympathetically. 

“Really? Can I tell you a secret, Mercy?”

Mercy nodded. 

“I won’t tell anyone! I promise!”

“I’m scared, too. I mean, I’m a plumber and I find myself constantly fighting against gods and kings with enormous armies.”

“But you’re always fighting them! How can you be scared?”

“Because I know that everybody relies on me. If I’m brave, they are too. Dimentio is a scary, bad guy, but you know what’s even scarier?”

“What?”

“That moment when everybody realizes that nobody is rising to defeat him. Being a hero is not only beating up bad guys, I’ve learnt that. It is mostly being someone that others can follow. Someone that can make people feel safe. Do you want to be a hero?”

“Yes! To help Mama! And you!”

“Then be strong. Be strong for her.”

Dimentio lifted his hand, his expression unreadable. 

“I… I need a moment to think. Geralt will provide with anything that is necessary. We’ll see each other tomorrow, Mercy.”

Before she even had the opportunity to say something, Dimentio disappeared.


	18. Crime and Punishment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning! Trigger Warning!  
> The following chapter features self harm!  
> If you don’t like it, do not read the first part of the chapter!  
> Beware!

Chapter 18: Crime and Punishment

Dimentio teleported into his room, it being significantly different from what it had appeared earlier, before his colossal, massive screw-up.

Of course it was different. The dissimulation charm had long been gone. Quite an interesting little spell that was. Easy to cast, consuming practically no magic at all, yet it could alter only so much, after all.

It was useful to make the slashed cushions appear pristine. Or let the stains of tears and blood take on the colour of the bedsheets. He knew he could replace them, but... he would only damage them again. Like everything.

He had less nightmares, now that Mercy was at the castle. Less nights spent living those moments. Burning meat. Green crown. Red cap. And now a hurt, little girl lying in a hospital bed.

Dimentio knew he shouldn’t care, but Kaksi did. Shut up, shut up! It’s your fault! Dimentio laid his hand on his chest and found his heart beating faster, ever faster.

“This... simply won’t do.”

Dimentio dropped the Chaos Heart’s shield, making sure that his barriers were up around the room.

“You know what I am. What is needed. We both know that.”

Dimentio approached the mirror that was on one of the walls. On its left stood a small shelf and on it laid a simple, silver knife.

“But it’s true, I made a mistake.” he unsheathed the knife, touching its pointy top with his index finger.

It was still sharp, so sharp that that simple gesture drew a small drop of blood on the jester’s finger.

“Once again, I was too weak” his grip of the knife tightened, “I... was arrogant. I once again thought to be in control. Like at the castle, like with Mimi. I thought everything would work out...” he took off his right glove, the unsheathed knife back on the shelf, “It didn’t. I knew I had to wait... but soon. Soon we will be free.”

He rolled up his right sleeve, exposing the pale, cyan skin, traced by parallel, elegant, thin, white scars. Instinctively, Dimentio grimaced at the sight of his skin colour.

“But not now. Now we can’t afford a mistake. We’re almost there. We’ll keep our promise. Dimentio will no longer be necessary.” he picked up the knife, “Now, we need to be me. Dimentio. We’ll have time, afterwards.”

He twirled it around a couple of times, the blade shimmering in the room’s soft light.

“We nearly lost her. We need to be better.” he lifted up the blade, placing it perpendicular to his arm, aligned with all the other scars, “We need to learn from our mistakes.”

The blade carefully graced the skin, opening the smallest of cuts, making tiny, blue droplets of blood flow while avoiding all vital arteries.

“Pain is the greatest teacher, they say.”

He put a little more force into it, tiny rivers of blood appear on his arm. In awe, he watched the little drops falling on the pavement, making a pristine _plink!_ every time they hit the marble floor. Just like the first time, back at the castle, back when it was only Kaksi and not even him, not truly. When the mask meant his non-existance.

But what he took in the most was the pain. He didn’t properly enjoy it, no, he wasn’t sick! He... accepted it. He knew it was necessary. What he had done... hurting Mercy physically... scarring her mentally... he was too powerful to face proper punishment and sweet, pure, precious Mercy was too good to punish him like he deserved.

A smile tinted his lips, a real smile, at the mere thought of the small girl. It wasn’t the symbol of superiority and power, not the sadistic gleeful smirk. She was more than he deserved. So, yes, this was necessary.

He was perfect, he knew. Deep down, he knew he still was the perfect being he was before... everything. Before all the blood that, although necessary, soiled his hands. He just had to regulate his growth, like a gardener taking care of a small tree, making it grow straight and healthy, cutting off the branches to give it a shape. And wasn’t that the final confirmation of his perfection? He was willing to hurt himself to be even better, to punish his mistakes! A lesser man surely wouldn’t do that.

The other thing of this ritual he relished in, other than making the universe right by dealing himself the righteous punishment, was the feeling of power, of control. Just some more pressure, just a twist here or there and he would be fatally wounded, doomed to die in some minutes. That wasn’t exactly true, given that he could summon Geralt whenever he pleased or simply heal himself, but the concept still stood.

Here, he was sure to have all the power of life and death, here he was truly free. Only who had control over all could allow himself to do whatever he pleased. As he let himself float in a sea of righteousness and power induced bliss, he chuckled. Oh, the irony of it all! After all, didn’t this whole debacle that was his life with a similar ritual?

“Bravo!”

The small crowd complimented the jester after another card trick. The yellow and purple clad figure bowed.

“Thank you, thank you. Was that of your pleasing, my prince?”

The blue skinned teen dressed in white, an attire that identified him as a member of the royal family of the Tribe, jolted to attention. It was clear as day that he had paid no mind to the jester’s small display.

“It... certainly was. Thank you.”

“No need, my prince. It is always a pleasure to amuse you.”

The prince nodded.

“Noted. You’re dismissed”

The jester bowed again, his head almost touching the ground. He took his leave without making any kind of sound.

As he roamed the halls, he desperatedly examinated everything he could do. The king and his council were in an important meeting, the prince had dismissed him and would, based on experience, not request his presence for at least the rest of day and no other social events were planned either.

He knew he needed something to do. To distract himself, to not think. Something cold touched his leg. He knew what it was even without looking. A big knife, that he stole from the kitchen long ago. That would surely be something to keep his mind from thinking about his parents burning at the stake.

He had discovered the sweet release of pain almost on accident. Since then, there wasn’t a day that went by without a little cut, a little bruise, a bit of spilled blood. How long had it been? 11 years. 11 years of being the little court jester, 7 years of cutting himself, 3 years since the nightmares began.

He shook his head, fearing where his mind would take him. He really needed sleep this night. He didn’t want to hear the screaming of his dying parents, the calls of the angry crowd. The jester adjusted his breathing. He was beginning to hyperventilate. That was surely inconvenient. He cleared his mind of all thoughts. No feelings. No memories. A blank canvas, just how it had to be.

Only then he realized he had wandered off. He was in an unfamiliar part of the castle, that he presumed was the residence of the royal family due to the furniture being even posher than in the rest of the palace. He knew he wasn’t allowed there.

Well, he certainly couldn’t do it here, right? If they found out-

Burning meat, grabbing hands, high hot flames.

He had to do it here. He... couldn’t bear it. He was about to... no, he couldn’t allow it. He cut into a room, the first one he found, he didn’t care. It was thankfully empty.

With a shaky breath, he threw his left glove to the ground, eagerly extracting the knife. He brought it towards his arm, his hands unsteady, relishing at the mere thought of the pain, sweet liberating pain.

The knife fell to the ground, the jester unable to even hold it. The metallic tool landed with a metallic sound on the stone floor, bouncing before finally laying still on the carpet.

He fell to his knees, scrambling to the blade, his mind nothing more than a primal instinct, a longing for the most basic emotion to free him, albeit temporarily, from his higher brain functions. He clutched the knife and brought it to his chest, whispering nonsense.

“What was that noise?”

Four words. Sixteen letters. The jester recognized immediately the voice. The King… A deep fear filled every inch of his body. In situations like this, they say that the body goes into ‘fight or flight’ mode. They couldn’t be more wrong. At least, that’s what the jester felt. No, not fight or flight, but flight or flight.

He frantically slipped into invisibility, noticing only a fraction of second too late that he forgot the glove he had discarded earlier. The king opened the door. The black glove was right in front of him, laying on the ground. Was the index finger of the glove pointed accusingly or was the jester’s mind playing tricks on him?

No time to answer that. The jester launched himself over it, the glove disappearing as soon as he touched it.

The king didn’t seem to notice and gave an inquisitive look into the room, giving the jester enough time to scutter away. He couldn’t leave the room without the king noticing, he was still blocking the only door. Better hide, then. The king couldn’t see him, but if he bumped into him he would be found out.

He put himself in one corner, hoping that the king would leave. The king turned right on his heels and stepped out. Yes! He looked left and right in the corridor, then stepped back in and slammed the door shut, locking it from the inside with a key he that took from his pocket.

No! He was trapped!

The king walked towards the closet and stepped in. A sliding noise could be heard. The jester could wait. The king would probably come back, open the door and he would be free, but if there was one thing that caught his mind even more than his cursed memories was curiosity.

He had lost the count of the hours he had spent in the castle library and he was fairly certain he had read every single book. History, culture, magic, narrative, science, he found it all fascinating. And here was a secret.

He followed the king. In the closet, a secret door stood ajar, it hiding a set of stairs. He went on and at its end there was the most magnificent thing he ever had ever seen. A well lit hallway lead through pedestals presenting various artefacts sealed under glass domes. He silently ran to the end, sparing numerous glances towards the weird things, living or not, made of metal, wood, crystal, meat. He only stopped at the end of the hallway, where the king was examinating an ancient looking book, illuminated by a cone of light.

The name of the book came to the jester’s mind immediately. The Dark Prognosticus. The king closed the book abruptly. The sudden noise surprised the jester, making him stumble and hit a brick in the wall. _Click!_ For a brief second, an opening formed in the wall, pulling the jester inside and down a flight of stairs.

The king turned his head to investigate the sound, yet the only thing he saw was the perfectly ordinary wall of the crypt, so he paid no mind to it.

The stairway was very long. In fact, the jester continued to fall for almost one minute, descending deeper and even deeper into the abyss. When he finally stopped, he landed face first on a cold, wet stone floor.

Groaning, he rose to his feet, his whole body aching for the furious tumble. He touched himself to assure that he hadn’t broken anything and, apart from his gloveless, intensely blue , pulsing left wrist, he didn’t see anything wrong.

He slid on his glove and looked around himself. The room was small, only lit by one of the magical, everlasting candles that illuminate the castle’s hallways. It appeared to have been escavated into the very rock underneath the castle and, from the amount of dust covering the floor, no one had, with every probability, been here for at least one hundred years, maybe more.

A secret passage inside a secret room, so secret that nobody even knew about it. Oh, this definitely captured his mind more than the pain, which wasn’t an issue anymore, since he had already received an abundant supply of it during his fall.

Whatever laid here was surely important. Something that needed to be hidden this well must be important. Important and interesting, without a doubt.

And dangerous, but who cared about that? He didn’t want to die, but to see something this secret was worth the risk. Even if it hurt or killed someone or everyone else in the castle or the world, why should he care? He had nobody and nothing that he valued enough that he wouldn’t risk it for this bit of forbidden knowledge.

And what was in the room? At first glance, absolutely nothing. Apart from a layer of dust that floated at about forty centimetres above the ground. An invisible object. It would have worked, if not for the dust.

The jester knelt down and picked up the object, rapidly dispelling the invisibility. It was a cubical box, made out of what seemed to be steel. He tried to open it, only for a magical seal to stop him. Of course.

He teleported back into his room, one of the very few spells he had managed to learn from the books. And he didn’t even do too well, given the tremendous amount of energy it took him to get back to his room.

There, he gave it a closer look. The seals looked very complex that he couldn’t, to his annoyance, dispel. The box itself was another matter. It looked resistant, but was ancient and weakened by time and lack of care. With enough work, he was sure to be able to tear a hole into it. It would take time and resources, but he could do it.

While examinating the box in search of possible weak points, he found a damaged engraving. Four words, but, while the first two were impossible to distinguish apart from the first letter of the first word, the last two could be read, albeit with difficulty.

 _M... ... Mechanical Interface_ , it read.

The jester smirked. Now this was certainly interesting!


	19. Ancients Powers Awoken

Chapter 19: Ancient Powers Awoken

Mercy stared at where Dimentio had disappeared, just some hours before. He seemed to be scared of what he had seen...

Well, he should be! He should have been ashamed of what he had done! He had thrown her to a beast and stood there laughing! He had given her nightmares when she was even smaller!

The strange thing was that he was a true villain and as such he should have loved scaring her. But instead it was like... he cared for her. He cared for her. And the feelings her mother had...

‘ _ And finally, if Mimi’s your mother, who is your father?’ _

That was impossible, right? It was Dimentio! He was one of the bad guys, he was THE bad guy! Her mother was too kind, too caring to love a villain like him! But she was a villain, too, her treacherous mind reminded her. She worked with him and wanted to destroy all worlds. 

But she changed! After… After what?

That was the problem. She... didn’t know. Dimentio had mentioned doing...  _ adult stuff –  _ she gagged at the thought – with her mother, but he was joking, right? There was only one way to find out... she thought, eyeing the pink book by her side. She picked it up, jumping to the following entry. Weird. It was written more frantically, with a different pen. She began reading.

_ Today... everything changed. _

__

Mimi was now seriously sick of the heroes. And of waking up with a headache. The two were, not so surprisingly, linked.

“Ah, Mimi, you’re finally awake.” came the surprisingly melodious voice of Dimentio.

Suddenly it wasn’t so bad.

“Wh- what happened?”

“You fell down, after losing to the heroes. The princess tried to save you, but-”

“I remember that. What happened after? Why aren’t you stopping them?”

“Thank you for saving me from pummelling into my death, Dimentio. You know, I could have left you to your fate, but I had a bad feeling and, like an overbearing mother, I watched over your fight. I was able to save you – again.”

“Thanks?”

“It was nothing. I... do not wish you harm, after all.”

Was that a ‘I care about you’? Well, he worded it weirdly, but she was pretty sure that the jester was unable to say something like that.

“W-well, thank you. I... don’t wish you harm, either?”

Her cheeks were warming up! What was happening! She needed to change the subject, quickly!

“W-what about the princess?”

Dimentio gave her a funny look. 

“Why do you care? Wasn’t she a rival of yours?”

“Well, she tried to save me. I-I think she didn’t want me to get hurt?”

Dimentio nodded. 

“I can understand that. I left her at the bottom of the pit, slowing her fall so she wouldn’t die. And, to answer your previous question, I already fought the heroes. I faked my death to come check on you. Right now they are probably fighting Count Bleck. They will destroy him in a matter of minutes.”

Mimi’s blood froze. 

“You... what? You let them pass? And why would the count be destroyed?”

Dimentio shrugged. 

“It was part of the plan. And the heroes have their Pure Hearts. They will bring down the count’s barrier and destroy him.”

“Then we have to go help the count!” 

“Aha ha.” Dimentio chuckled, “And why would I do that?”

“For the perfect worlds! L died for them!”

“Don’t worry, Mimi, I still care about that. I just don’t see how helping Bleck will lead to it.”

“W-what do you mean? The count has the Chaos Heart!”

“And he doesn’t plan on using it to create perfect, new worlds. He just wants to destroy, like a child that has grown bored of his toy.”

“That’s- are you joking?”

“I’m afraid not, Mimikins. I too was shocked when I learnt about it. That’s why I ‘borrowed’ the Dark Prognosticus. I was planning for this moment. Bleck shall fall, then I’ll snatch the Chaos Heart from under the heroes’ noses!”

“W-why are you telling me this?”

“O’Chunks is too dimwitted and probably dead by now, Nastasia too loyal to the count, but you... I want you to have your perfect world. It is only right. I know you probably don’t trust me, but-”

“I trust you.”

This time it was Dimentio’s turn to remain surprised, although just for a second. 

“Say what now?”

Mimi was equally surprised. She logically wanted to not trust Dimentio. He was kinda shady, who knows what more he could be hiding from her! But... there was this warm feeling inside her that made her more... open in his regards. She felt like he was telling the truth. The only thought of why Dimentio had chosen her filled her with happiness.

Instantly she realized something. She finally put a name to the feelings she felt towards Dimentio.

“I-I trust you. You... wouldn’t gain anything by betraying me, right?”

Dimentio flashed a beautiful grin. 

“But of course. I just want what’s best for you.”

Her logic screamed no, but she trusted him with every cell of her body.

“So... do you need something in particular?”

The jester could say one thing. Whoever made the box knew what they were doing. It had been days of constant experiments with all kinds of potions, tools and even spells, but nothing. Not even a dent. How was he supposed to open this damn thing!

Calm down. 

Actually, he wasn’t supposed to. And, even if it took years, all the better. It had been weeks since he last touched the knife, not needing pain to take his mind off of things. He had the box.

Suddenly, he slipped. The little saw he was attempting to open the box with ended on his thumb, managing to ruin the glove and draw blood. Taken by irritation, he picked up the blasted container and threw it at the wall. To hell with it!

Even later, he couldn’t manage to understand what caused it. Maybe he had weakened the structure, after all, or the impact had hit a particularly weak point, who knows? What happened is that the box shattered against the wall, pieces of it flying across the room, and its content fell on the floor with a thud.

The jester stood perfectly still for a second. Wha- 

He rushed to where box’s content laid. Whatever it was, it was... weird. A small green square, the size of his head, surrounded by floating smaller green squares. Two on all sides, except for the top and six squares in total. At the top floated a small, metallic, green crown.

The knowledge from the history books rushed to the jester’s brain. A pixl. Hadn’t they been all wiped out by the war? Apparently not.

Eight small dots, four on each side, appeared in the central square. Where they... eyes?

“Who are you?”

Mario jumped one final time, his feet colliding with Bleck’s head, sending the member of the tribe of darkness tumbling to the ground. Bleck felt his forces abandon him and shed a tear. It was finally done. He felt his faithful Nastasia warp to his side and gave her a nod of acknowledgement. He genuinely felt bad for her and all of his ‘minions’. They didn’t deserve to be tricked, but Nastasia knew from the start. She was suffering as much as he was.

“Good work, heroes. Now, vanquish Count Bleck, and the prophecy with him.”

“But... we can finally be together. It doesn’t have to be this way...”

“It does. It’s too late for me. Count Bleck has done too much evil.”

“But... we’re finally together again...”

Count Bleck shook his head. 

“At least I now know that you are alive. I can die happily. End Count Bleck’s tale.”

“But with pleasure!” a familiar voice chirped.

Dimentio? All was a blur for some seconds, but when he could see distinctly again, Nastasia laid on the ground, unconscious.

“Aha ha ha. Oh, why would you do that? Why give your life for a dead man?” the jester materialised, “I was just about to give him the sweet release he so much craves!”

Bleck growled, outraged, and tried to stand up again, almost succeeding, before being forced to lie down again by his wounds and one more of Dimentio’s attacks. Dimentio bowed to the heroes. 

“My deepest thanks to you, my friends. You have served your role on this stage well. But now, like a Greek god in a play, I descend from above to resolve all!”

“W-what are you saying, you madman! We had already defeated him! There was no need to!” Tippi said.

“Y-yeah! We already told you that we’re not interested in working with you!” Luigi backed her up. 

“Aha ha ha ha” Dimentio laughed eerily, before continuing with a chilling voice, “And who said anything about working with you? Yes, you may have been useful, but please. My dedication to create a perfect world still stands. Don’t feel bad, I would have betrayed you either way. Aha ha ha. No. Now that the count is dying, his control over the Chaos Hearth has vanished. I will take it and... continue with his plan.”

“You traitor!” Bleck snarled, “You betray Count Bleck in the end! Count Bleck should h- ugh!” 

Bleck was stopped by a magical orb slamming into his chest, courtesy of Dimentio. 

“Tut, tut, count. I don’t believe you’ve understood. It is you who have betrayed and tricked me and your other minions. If you hadn’t, you would have lived in your perfect world.” Dimentio chuckled, “But it’s not like you would have desired that either way, Blumiere.”

Bleck froze. 

“Wha-”

“Oh, come on! You know me, Blumiere! Not that well, but still. You think that I would not realize your true intentions?” Dimentio suspended Bleck by his neck, taking him several meters into the air, “And you know what? Even after what you did... I would have let you live. Because I thought we were similar. Bonded by loss, with an akin vision. Aha ha. But the truth is that you are a delusional.”

Dimentio extended his arm, ready to drop him off. The count looked down. It was a considerable height. He wouldn’t survive the fall, but even if Dimentio kept him like that, he could already see the edges of his vision darkening, the air in his lungs rapidly declining. The count was slowly suffocating.

So, is this how he died? Not even able to defend his beloved? Not even able to see what this madman would do to her? No! He trashed weakly, but it was no use. He was too weak, too weak. Dimentio let go. Count Bleck touched the ground gently. What? Had Dimentio teleported? Why?

“My, my, count. You’ll have to excuse me, I usually work alone, so I do tend to hog up all the spotlight for myself. Would you like to say something to the dear count, Mimikins?”

Said green girl had just teleported in, a shook expression on her face. Bleck gave a hurt look to her.

“Mimi... you too?” he whispered.

Mimi winced and Dimentio feigned outrage. 

“What? I don’t get the disbelief? Unbelievable!” he turned to Mimi, “Go on. It will be your last chance, after all.”

Mimi stepped towards the count, then stopped. It was all so silent, the drop of a pin would have been heard. Even the heroes stood perfectly still, almost afraid of making a wrong step. Finally, Mimi spoke. 

“Count... did you really want to leave us all to die?”

“Mimi, I-”

“Answer the question!” Mimi yelled, tears in her eyes.

She grew silent again, then she added softly, her voice breaking by sobs. 

“Please. Please, tell me he’s lying. Please.”

Bleck tried to speak, but as his eyes met Mimi’s, all words died in his throat. He lowered his gaze to the ground. Mimi lowered hers as well, just for a second, heartbroken. A part of her had hoped that Dimentio was lying, but irrationally she knew it couldn’t be a lie. And now she had confirmation.

She wiped away her tears with one hand and turned to face Dimentio. She nodded. The jester’s smile, if possible, grew even wider, a triumphant glint in his golden eye.

“Please, Mimi...” pleaded Bleck, with a broken voice, “Don’t listen to him! He’s going to lie to you! He’s going to betray you!”

“And this is coming from the one who betrayed me in the first place!” Mimi snapped, “I trusted you!”

“I know! But Dimentio-”

“I trust him. He... he won’t betray me.” replied Mimi, more softly.

“It doesn’t have to be this way...”

“Aha ha ha. I think it does, Bleck. Now!” Dimentio interrupted, yanking the Chaos Heart away from Bleck, who had held onto it with everything he had.

“Heroes!” Bleck called out, “Please! I won’t be able to hold onto it for longer!”

Dimentio growled. 

“Stop resisting! It’s- whoa!” he exclaimed as he narrowly dodged Bowser’s flames, “Mimi! Keep them occupied!”

Mario jumped towards Dimentio, only to be forced to take cover from the barrage of rubees. True Mimi put herself between the heroes and the two mages engaged in a war of tug.

“I’ll hold her off!” Peach screamed at Mario, “You go and stop Dimentio!”

** “I can’t let you do that, princess! MIMIMIMI” **

Peach reacted just in time to shield herself with her parasol from Mimi’s rubees, but when she dropped it to go deal with her, she got smacked by one of Mimi’s spider legs, getting thrown far away, while Mimi guffawed.

“Peach!” Mario called, before turning to face Mimi, “You’ll pay for this!”

Mimi smiled an eerie smile.

** “And you’ll pay for Mr L!” **

Mario crooked his head. 

“What?”

Mimi growled and charged the red plumber.

“I- uhm, well, I don’t really have a name. I-I mean, I used to have one, but, you see, they all-”

“Calm down.” the pixl interrupted him, “Breathe in. Breathe out.”

The jester complied, slowly calming himself.

“Better?”

He nodded.

“You said you had a name, right?”

“Yes. I went by Kaksi. Now, they all call me jester, simply. What about you?”

“I’m Q- call me Pixl.”

The jester arched an eyebrow, not that it could be seen from behind the mask. 

“Really? Pixl? Originality isn’t your forte, is it?”

The pixl ignored his provocation. 

“Where are we?”

“In the castle of the Tribe of Darkness.” he said and seeing her confusion he added, “Do you know who they are?”

“No.”

“Well, when you were sealed in? I can brief you about what has happened.”

“Really? Well... the last thing I remember is the end of the pixl uprising.”

The jester nodded. 

“Makes sense. After that, pixls weren’t exactly... trusted. Well, the ancients were decimated and the one who defeated the Pixl Queen took the Dark Prognosticus with them, a very powerful prophetic book, and, I assume, you and founded the Tribe of Darkness to hide the artefacts he deemed too dangerous. After the war, pixls were hunted down, no doubt that that’s what happened to you, and the ancients sort of... collapsed. If you searched real hard, I’m sure you could find your old creators and, why not, even some of your old kin.”

Pixl nodded or so the jester thought. It was kind of hard to tell, due to her lack of a neck. 

“And what about you? What’s the deal with you?”

The jester shrugged. 

“I’m just a jester. I found your prison by accident and decided it would be interesting to try and open it. Nothing more.”

“Really? And you say you’re just a jester? I could have been dangerous!”

“I don’t particularly care.” the jester answered not moving in the slightest. 

Pixl shot him a look. 

“You’re... strange. Whatever. I have places to be.”

She tried to fly away, but as soon as she left the ground, she fell.

“What...” she mumbled, as the jester picked her up as you would with a cat.

“You must be exhausted from your many years in captivity. Don’t worry.” he reassured her as he placed her gently on a soft pillow, “You can stay here as long as you need.”

He walked towards a closet to take out Grambi knows what.

“Then... I can leave, right?”

“Aha ha. Of course not.” the jester answered, still searching, “There! Found it!”

Before Pixl could even attempt to do anything, the jester had put her and the pillow into a cage.

“I had planned to use that for an escapism number, but whatever.”

“Why are you keeping me here!” the Pixl growled, trying to be intimidating despite her weakness.

The jester didn’t even flinch. 

“If you are seen, I’ll be found out. I do care about my life, especially when I don’t gain anything by it being risked. And, after all, I freed you to be entertained. So, don’t be angry with me, please. I really much need something to take my mind off... things.”

“So, I shall amuse you? Why?”

“Because I very much need to. P-please.”

Pixl was... confused. This... jester had some problem, that was clear. A flash of a life that wasn’t hers hit her.

_ ‘Daddy, the storm is so scary! Can you read me a story? Please!’ _

She took a deep breath. At least, she tried to. She didn’t, after all, have a proper mouth. Or lungs.

“Fine. Beats being in that stupid box. You see, ancients, before assuming a human form, had a true form. Some say they still retain it, they simply don’t know how to use it. Of course...”

And so the jester listened, the pixl talking on and on, letting his mind being taken away, far from fire and burning meat.

Mimi shot a rubee at Mario, only to be whacked in the back of her head by Luigi.

** “MIMIMIMI! Stop fighting!” ** she growled. 

This wasn’t going well! They would overpower her in  [ moments ](http://www.apple.it/) .  She glanced at where Dimentio was standing. He was still struggling to take the Chaos Heart from Bleck. 

** “Speed up, you dum-” **

But as she pronounced those words, Bleck’s grip finally slipped. Dimentio let out a cry of triumph, but pulled too hard. The Chaos Heart rocketed out of his hold. Everybody stopped dead in their tracks, watching breathlessly as the Chaos Heart’s flew through the air.

And hit Mimi straight in the chest.

She reverted immediately into her girl form, pain and power filling her every cell. She felt herself grow, but stopped, retaining her normal form. Dimentio teleported right next to her. 

“Well, this wasn’t in the plan, but we can always sort it out.”

He pulled Mimi to himself and started to dance slowly with her. Mimi’s cheeks heated up, she didn’t know if it happened because of the Chaos Heart’s power or of... that. The heroes rushed to stop them, but just as Mario got to them, his hammer already drawn, Dimentio pulled Mimi into a casque.

“Too late.” the jester uttered to the hero, his smile reaching the edges of the mask.

Then, everything went white.

“I don’t have the understanding! Why is this not having the working!” Fawful growled.

Before him laid a perfect replica of the machine he had created for Antasma, connected to countless sleeping Toads and Beans, prisoners in his castle.

“I don’t know. How should I?” a voice whispered near his ear.

Fawful turned rapidly, whipping out his ray gun, only to face the familiar figure of King Pimento.

“It has the being of you! I had almost the preferring of when you had the killing and destroying of my guards! Whying do you have the sneaking up on me!”

“Calm down, Fawful. I assure you, I don’t want to sneak up on you. The new form that my master has granted me is, however, more surprising than I could ever hope.”

“Whatevering.” Fawful huffed.

“So, what do you plan to do to power up the Dark Stone? The time to strike is coming.”

“I-I don’t have the knowing.”

“Maybe you could ask Antasma.”

“He would have the finding outing!”

“Well, maybe. Bring him onto your side, then.”

“Howing!?!? He has the disliking of betrayal!”

“Blaha ha ha.” Pimento chuckled, “Well, you’re an evil genius. You’ll figure out a way. But always remember the clock...” he paused dramatically, turning his back to Fawful and walking back into the shadows.

As he took the final step, he finally concluded the sentence.

“Is ticking.”

Mimi felt her senses returning to her almost immediately, but she wasn’t awake. She was in her mind. She didn’t know how to describe it, but it was like a nebula, gaseous and open. She glanced around herself. Nothing except for a black and white box. Dimentio’s mind. What happened, where was she-

‘Calm down.’

She would have jumped, if she wasn’t in her own mind. She thought she had heard Dimentio’s voice, but-

‘It’s my thoughts. We’ve... fused.’

Oh. Of course. What now?

‘I need you to give me full control over our body. To fight the heroes.’

She mentally nodded, only a doubt in her mind.

How do I do that?

‘Keep your mind open.’

She felt something slithering into her mind. And suddenly, she saw the world again. She saw the new body that Dimentio had crafted.

A giant gown, yellow and purple composed their torso, countless black tendrils and spider legs sprouted from it. Four enormous, razor sharp claws floated around it and on its top, Dimentio’s mask, wearing his hat. The mask had only one difference from his usual or, to be precise, eight differences. Eight eyes, four golden yellow eyes on the left, four red eyes on the right.

She watched as the monstrous body rose up under Dimentio’s will, as their two voices spoke combined, as the heroes looked horrified at their new, terrible foe.

“NOW THE CHAOS HEART IS MINE! I WILL USE IT TO DESTROY ALL WORLDS! AND CREATE PERFECT NEW ONES!”

The ground of the castle trembled, as the void continued its merciless destruction.

“SO, SHALL WE GET STARTED? NOW, I HAVE ALL I NEED! TO BECOME THE KING OF ALL WORLDS!”


	20. Chapter 20: Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if it was late! Enjoy and leave a comment if you liked it!  
> And a shoutout to my beta reader and fellow Dimimi writer, pempeeperem

Chapter 20: Hearts

The magma boiled and sent little, burning particles onto the narrow pathway. Two koopas were on patrol, adorned in various golden necklaces, crowns and wielding golden spears.

“Hey, Tod.”

“What, Rod?”

“Do you think that the heroes will attack soon?”

“Bah! I hope! It’s so boring here. And I hope to kick the king’s butt after he kicked me out. I just stole from his treasure. He literally leaves golden coins around, but I’m an outlaw because I stole some from his chests?”

“Same, same.”

“What makes you think that they will attack?”

“You know my cousin, Bob?”

“The one in accounting?”

“That one. He told me that he heard from the wife of the brother of the guy in communications that the heroes attacked Antasma’s fortress! And they stole his ‘Black Pebble’ or something.”

“Dark Stone?”

“That one! So maybe they’re going to strike at the boss’ boss!”

“That means they’ll attack here. All the better!”

“I was just thinking...”

“What? You? Thinking? It’s already been six months since last time?”

“Shut up! I’ll have you know that yesterday I finished a jigsaw puzzle”

“And what?”

“I did it in four months! The package said ‘From 1 to 5 years’!”

The koopa whistled, impressed. 

“Woah! How did you do that?”

“Well, I tried again and again. I tried everything! Nails, glue...”

“What about tape?”

“Even that!”

“It was pretty hard then! What did you do?”

“I ate it!”

The koopa patted him on the shell. 

“You’re a genius! I take everything back!”

“So, I was thinking. What if they come from the sky? We patrol only here.”

“Well, that’s true, but I have a buddy that told me that he heard from a friend, the janitor, who heard two guys gossiping that there is a super-secret regiment of Paratroopas! And anti air guns! So, it’s fine. I think.”

“What if they pass through the lava? W-what if they take a submarine?”

“That’s not possible! The submarine goes into the water! Lava is like super-hot! They can’t pass through lava! Nothing can!”

The first koopa nodded. 

“Yeah, didn’t think about that. Now I feel really safe! Nothing will come into here!”

The chattering of the koopa duo vanished in the distance. Mimi released the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. She thought that they had seen her, but so far she has gone under the radar. Continuing to swim through the hot liquid, she focuses on the task at hand.

She couldn’t allow herself to be seen. If Dimentio’s minions saw her, she knew that they would recognize her as the carrier of the Pure Hearts and nothing more. They would probably strike her down without a second thought. 

She needed to be careful. Finally, she reached the shore. The little, desert area looked perfect for camping for some time, while she figured out a way to get inside. She thought about the two guards. Was what they were saying true? If the heroes attacked, there would be mayhem. If this was the case, she could slip in unseen and destroy the amulet. Then nothing would stand in the way and she could finally get to Dimentio. She sighed. That meant waiting. 

How it all came to this? She still remembered that fateful fight...

“AHAHAHA! WHY DO YOU STILL FIGHT, WHEN YOU’RE LIKE HOPELESS BUGS AGAINST AN EXTERMINATOR?” Dimentio laughed, sending another barrage of orbs towards the heroes.

The two Mario brothers rose up and ran towards the enormous beast, their hammers in position and ready to strike. The beast turned to face them.

“Oh?” Dimentio laughed, “You’re approaching me? Instead of running away, you’re coming right towards me? Even after you’ve tried everything against me like students that, scrambling to finish the last problem on an exam, try to write whatever comes to their mind until the chime?”

“We can’t kick your ass without getting closer!” Mario answered.

“Y-yeah! That!”

“Oh oh.” Dimentio widened his four hands, “Then come as close as you like!” 

Black tentacles shot from underneath the gown and towards the two heroes. Mario managed to duck in time, but his brother didn’t, getting slit on his arm. He dropped the hammer and fell onto his knees, clutching the nasty cut.

“Go on, bro! I’m fine!”

Mario ran on to the pillars that had started floating around, dodging Dimentio’s orbs and the tentacles. Eventually, he got to eye level with the gargantuan creature.

“Take-a-this!” he screamed, jumping towards the jester’s face and hitting him with the hammer right between the two sets of four eyes, where the white and the black of the mask met.

Only to be thrown away by the Chaos Heart’s barrier. As Mario rose again, one eye blinded by the blood dripping from a cut on his forefront, Dimentio cackled madly. 

“Aha ha ha! What- aha- what was exactly your objective there? I mean, you know I’m invincible, right?” Dimentio attempted to clean his face from the tears of laughter.

Which proved to be difficult, having eight eyes. Mario’s left leg faltered for a second, but the man managed to stand up straight, staring with enviable firmness into the eyes of the god.

“Heroes need to stand up. Always.”

“Aha ha. Don’t make me laugh. In this situation your only chance to not die a painful death is to stand down.”

“Do you always fight like this? Only when you have the upper hand, hiding and betraying high and low?”

“Of course. I call it fighting smart. After all, it wouldn’t do if I died fighting a hopeless battle. Like you are.”

“I call it being a coward. You’re nothing but a coward. A real hero fights not to win, but to give people hope!”

“Aha. And what do you know about being a hero? From my perspective, creating a perfect world for all is hero-like! But enough chit-chat! To mirror the words of my poor, deceased friend, have at you!”

Tendrils launched at Mario, constricting his every limb. Bowser and Peach hurried to the restrained plumber to save him. Mimi summoned a wave of rubees, sending the duo back and forcing Peach to defend Bowser with her parasol.

‘Was that you?’ Dimentio’s thought reached her.

Yes!

‘Thank you. I see now more than ever why the Count thought of you as a formidable fighter.’

Mimi blushed mentally.

“And now, let’s end this charade, funny as it may be.”

A big rubee formed in front of Mario. The hundreds and hundreds of black tendrils covered it almost entirely, as it started spinning like an enormous drill.

“Ciao!”

The deadly projectil rocketed towards Mario’s chest, only barely stopped by a magical barrier.

“What...” Dimentio muttered.

A teleport could be heard. Dimentio snapped the gigantic head towards the sound, the shock at what he saw being enough to make him drop the tendrils from Mario. Three figures had appeared. Count Bleck, Tippi and O’Chunks. Above the trio, a new set of Pure Hearts.

“What!” he barked, more decisive this time, “That’s impossible! You have already wasted them on Bleck!”

Mimi recovered quicker than Dimentio, sending the tendrils after Mario again, but the gained distance gave him more time to dodge.

“That’s what you will never understand! The Pure Hearts are the very feelings of our souls! As long as we feel love, they shall never die!”

“Oh, the power of love. How very cliché. As if you could understand what love truly means, you naive girl! But as you wish. Pure Hearts or no Pure Hearts, you are no match for us! You shall fall!” he concluded, sounding more like trying to convince himself than them, “As it is stated in the Dark Prognosticus! As it is written it shall happen!” 

‘Mimikins’

Dim?

‘We’ll need your rubees, lots of them. I’ll take care of the rest.’

Mimi summoned several rings of rubees around their form and shot them into all directions, replenishing them steadily to keep up the bullet hell. Dimentio lashed out at the heroes with his sharp tendrils and tracked them with electric orbs, trying to keep the man in red from reaching the Pure Hearts. All of this wasn’t supposed to happen!

But for all he did, the red-clad plumber got ever closer, inch by inch, ten meters receding to nine, ducking underneath dark blades, red gems and magic orbs. The jester grew frantic, his thoughts started slipping him.

No, no! After all he had done, all he had planned! Pixl... I can’t fail you! At this thought Dimentio attacks grew stronger and more desperate.

Pixl? Who was she? Mimi thought, interrogating herself, trying to hide this newfound knowledge. She shook herself. She couldn’t allow this! She, too, started channelling more and more of her power into the barrage of rubees, trying to slow down Mario’s journey towards the Hearts, but for everything the duo did in the end Mario stood in front of the Pure Hearts.

‘MIMI! SHOOT ALL ON HIM! ALL YOU HAVE, QUICK!’ Dimentio’s order came desperate and pleading and Mimi found herself obeying nonetheless.

The fusion shot a powerful storm of magic and gems that would have obliterated planets towards the hero in red, who jumped towards the hearts. Time slowed. Dimentio’s last, hopeless attempt to try and stop the hero from reaching his goal, to buy the jester time to hatch a plan.

This could not be happening!

But as the storm inched closer to the hero, so did he towards the Pure Hearts and, as the attack was closing in onto the hero’s chest, only a thumb’s width away, Mario’s index finger touched the bottom heart. Time returned to its original speed.

A blade of energy blasted from the hero, cutting the approaching hurricane of attacks as if it was butter. Dimentio tried to move sideways, to teleport away, anything to avoid it, but it was too late. The blast hit them square in the face, making the colossal body stumble backwards.

Dimentio’s control over the fusion weakened greatly and Mimi managed to gain it before they fell onto the ground, recovering their stance.

Dimentio?

No answer.

Well, crap.

She summoned a wall of rubees, but the heroes managed to dodge that easily.

Dimentio!?

‘I-I am here. W-what happened?’

They used the Pure Hearts! We need to attack them!

‘Of course. We’re vulnerable, but... we can still win. Hand over the wheel’

Like before, Mimi relinquished control to Dimentio, even if it felt more wavering than before. Some seconds passed, but nothing happened.

“My powers... they are gone.” Dimentio spoke through the mouth of the colossus, “This was not supposed to happen...”

Mario whipped up his hammer once again, his breath laboured. 

“It ends here, Dimentio.”

He approached the fusion, that got into a defensive stance.

“Even without my powers, I will destroy you!”

Dimentio shot his four hands towards the man in red, trying to grab him, slash him or at least stop him, but the plumber slipped through the cracks of his fingers, leaving the titan exposed and without any defence, the hands too slow to return before Mario arrived.

“Please Mario, don’t harm Mimi!” Bleck pleaded, “She has no role in this!”

Mimi growled and tried to impale Mario with her spider legs, following that with more rubees. Who did the count thought himself to be? To betray her and then suddenly care for her! Mario climbed onto the beast and got ready to strike the mask as he did before.

“So long, Dimentio!”

The hammer touched the mask. And, as before, the hero got blown away by the Chaos Heart’s barrier. This time, Mario didn’t rise up. He was knocked out cold.

“What?” Bleck asked flabbergasted, “That’s impossible! Dimentio’s powers disappeared, why does the barrier remain?

Dimentio was silent, but Mimi felt his power slip again. What was happening?

‘We need... to teleport...’ came the thought from Dimentio’s mind, sounding exhausted.

Where?

‘Away...’ 

Then, silence. Without a further word, the enormous figure disappeared, leaving a rather confused group of heroes in their wake.

Nastasia was setting up some paperwork. Even though it was no longer necessary, she always felt better doing it, so she did it nonetheless. Suddenly the door burst open and through it came the familiar form of O’Chunks.

“‘Ey lass! ‘ow’s it going?”

Nastasia adjusted her glasses. 

“What’s the problem, O’Chunks? I have things to do, so, be quick, k?”

“No worry, Nassie! Just one question!”

“...go on.”

The big man started blushing, an almost comical sight on him. He muttered something inaudible.

“What? Speak louder, k?”

O’Chunks cleared his voice. 

“Will ye go on a date? With me?”

Nastasia was speechless. Had she misheard? He couldn’t be serious.

“O-of course ye can take all the time you need tae decide! And we’ll do it after giving tae Dimentio a good chunking!”

“I-I need to think about it.”

“Y-yeah, it would be better tae think about it, yeah.”

And right then, Nastasia heard something in her head.

‘Nastasia. Are you there?’

“Yes.” she replied without thinking, her thoughts translating into words by mistake.

“R-really? Thank you!” O’Chunks practically squealed, before rocketing out of the door.

“Wait!” Nastasia called, but it was too late.

‘Bad time?’ the voice in her head asked.

Yes, she thought back, annoyed.

‘I’m deeply sorry, but it’s of the utmost importance.’

What?

‘She has arrived.’

Nastasia’s heart stopped.

Should we go on with the plan, then?

‘Of course. Or are you having second thoughts?’ 

Nastasia hesitated a second, then replied.

No. It’s necessary

‘Good. We can’t allow any hesitation.’

When they arrived on the other end of the teleport, the fusion collapsed. Initially, Mimi didn’t know why, but she quickly figured it out, seeing as Dimentio passed out on the ground. She took a look around. 

They were in a clearing of a luscious forest, right in front of what looked like an abandoned cottage. When Dimentio told her to teleport, she instantly thought of this place, but she didn’t quite remember why. Nastasia always told her that her memory was bad.

As she went to pick up Dimentio, something in the grass caught her attention. She knelt down to examinate it. It was a seed. Brown, the size of a walnut. It didn’t look like it was from around here. She was pretty sure that the trees around them were pine trees and those didn’t have seeds, right? Not seeds like this one. So, it must have come with them. 

She pocketed it, planning on asking Dimentio about it later, and dragged the magician inside.


	21. Chapter 21: Clashes and Betrayal

Chapter 21: Clash and Betrayal

“Rod, quick, make a wish!”

“Why, Tod?”

“There’s a falling star!”

“... Tod, it’s noon. We’re having lunch.”

“Look!”

The koopa rolled his eyes and peeked from the guard post.

“Uh. That is one beautiful falling star.”

“What did you wish for?”

“More money.”

“... me too.”

“...”

“...”

“Is it normal for it to be getting closer?”

“Getting wh-”

The koopa never finished the phrase, as the big flaming ball that he and his buddy had flagged as a falling star collided right on them, obliterating the guard post and knocking them out cold. The enormous projectile got up, revealing himself to be none other but Bowser.

“Bwahaha! I’m awesome, like usual! Good throw, Chunky Boy!”

O’Chunks teleported in, alongside the rest of the heroes. 

“Nae, Bowie, you made a good t’rowing ball! And t’ey didn’t even notice!”

Just as the big Scotman pronounced these words, a loud alarm started blaring and hordes of koopas poured out of the gates of the big Wario-head-like building.

“You just couldn’t keep you mouth shut...”

“‘m sorry Nassie.”

“Rise and shine, little one.” a voice whispered into Mercy’s hear.

The small girl rolled onto her other side, mumbling something incoherent that vaguely sounded like ‘Five more minutes.’

“Aha ha. I see. Well, if you don’t want to, I’ll see to it that you will rise.”

A finger poked at her head, not too hard, but it wasn’t the gentlest touch either and suddenly, Mercy felt the soft surface that was her mattress getting farther and ever farther away. With a long sleepy whine, she opened her eyes and saw that it wasn’t the bed that was moving, but her! In fact, she was currently floating, getting higher and ever higher. She squirmed and tried to swim back to the soft bed, but it was useless.

“Dimentio!” she squealed.

“What?” the jester asked, lying on nothing but air, his head resting on his hand.

“Let me down! Now!”

“As you wish, little princess.” 

Dimentio snapped his fingers. Mercy realized too late that she might have worded her sentence a bit poorly. Fortunately, her fall was caught by the soft bed. Nothing hurt, but being woken up like that was uncalled for! She jumped up and chased after Dimentio, trying to hit him, but he simply cooed and floated a little bit higher, out of her reach.

“Aha. You’re like a puppy trying to reach for the food that its owner keeps on the top shelf, cute and hopeless.”

“What was that, you big dummy!”

“I was just trying to wake you up. It seems that I succeeded. Aha!”

“You almost hurt me!”

Dimentio’s smile nearly fell for a second and he came down to Mercy’s level.

“Mercy.” he said, his usual joking tone was nowhere to be heard, “It has come to my attention that I’ve recently endangered you. Understand, that while that was not in my intention, I am truly sorry about it and I will see that it does not happen again. Do you wish to inflict punishment on Shadoo, the material executor?”

“No!”

“Very well. I shall do it, then.” Dimentio continued, an electric sphere appearing in his palm.

Before he could teleport away, Mercy stopped him. 

“Nonono! I-I mean, he shouldn’t be ‘punished’!”

Dimentio slowly nodded. 

“Ah. Of course. Yes, torturing him would be redundant. I shall simply dispose of him.”

“No, that neither! Can you just... let him go?”

“Let him go? He hurt you! He nearly killed you!”

“It was an accident! It happened many times when I trained with Uncle Blu-” she interrupted herself, but it was too late.

Dimentio looked at her, his fist clenched with rage. 

“HE DID WHAT? Oh, now that’s where I draw the line! He’s dead! Dead like... a corpse! Aha!”

“Wait, he didn’t mean to!”

“Matters not. He still hurt you!”

“It was an accident! You hurt me too!”

“Now that’s was different. I was just... trying to help you learn.”

“By throwing a beast at me?”

“Oh, you were completely safe. I had complete control over the situation.”

Mercy wordlessly indicated at her bandaged head.

“...maybe less control than I thought, but I assure you that the circumstances that led to your hurting were not my responsibility.”

“Those were Shadoo’s fault?”

“...I must admit that they were not.”

“So can we just... not do this? Please?”

Dimentio smiled even more. 

“Aha. But of course. If that’s what you wish. If you don’t mind.”

He summoned a walkie talkie. 

“Geralt, mission’s off. I repeat, mission’s off.”

A shot could be heard, followed by the butler’s voice.

“Next time a little earlier, master? It should not be fatal, however.”

Dimentio pocketed the contraption. 

“Well, seems like Shadoo is fine. Mostly. So, maybe we could talk about what I meant to do with you this morning!”

“...and that is?”

“Aha ha ha!” Dimentio laughed evilly, “Aha ha ha. AHA HA HA HA! **AHA HA HA HA!** What, my dear, other than magic?”

“I have to say Bowser, these guys really are better than your normal koopas.” said Mario, dodging a spear jab.

“I know, right?” Peach added, hitting one of Wario’s minions with her parasol, “I mean, they don’t walk straight into holes in the ground? They have weapons? They actually come after you?”

“Ah ah ah!” snorted Bowser sarcastically, currently wrestling with over twenty koopas that had latched onto him and were trying to push him into lava, “Could you stop joking and help me? Seriously, these guys seem to only go after me! I know I exiled them and all, but still!”

Mario pulled out his hammer, swiftly dealt with the koopa in front of him and rushed to help Bowser. A lone koopa appeared out of nowhere, a portable cannon on his shoulder. The group of koopas that were suppressing Bowser jumped off of him. 

“So long, Gay Bowser!” the Bazooka Koopa shouted.

Mario ran even faster, changing direction and heading towards the koopa, but was too slow. The shot went off and an enormous bullet rocketed towards Bowser. Rocketed. Well, that could be argued. More like, slowly moved towards the Koopa King, who simply jumped over it. Mario hit the koopa on the head with his hammer before he could shoot again. 

“That’s-a my line!”

“It seems they continued to use the old equipment.” Peach teased.

“Uh.” Bowser commented, “Well, that’s awkward.”

Blumiere shook his head. 

“Seriously, how did you manage to be a villain for so long?”

“Wah! Exactly my question!” a loud voice echoed.

All heads turned to the direction of the voice’s origin, except one, who’s owner took the distraction as an opportunity to pursue their true objective and sneaked into the vault, unseen by all.

The one who had spoken was Wario, hovering over the heroes in a lavish gold platform, covered in diamonds.

“I thought your minions were better stuff, but Wah!tever. As my gramps said, if you want to do something, do it yourself! So prepare to... wah, well, I don’t feel like fighting, right now, so what I’ll do myself is getting another minion to deal with you. But right now it wah-ll take some time.” he snapped his fingers, “Wah-it! I nearly forgot! Have I showed you my little pet?”

“Oh shit.” whispered Bowser

“Bowser!” Timpani gasped.

“What!? Mercy’s not here, I can swear all I like! I’ll say the f-word and nobody can stop me!”

“Wah! Eyes on me! I’m about to destroy you! Well, Goldie is.”

“Who’s Goldie?” Mario asked.

“She is!” Wario announced, producing what looked like a puppy made of molten gold from behind his back.

The puppy yapped happily. Under all the heroes’ eyes, except for Bowser and the one who had left, Wario petted the little dog. 

“Who’s an evil girl? Wah, hot. Yes, you are! Wah, still too hot.”

Then Goldie saw the heroes and barked angrily.

“Oh, yes, that’s my girl! Wah, why are you so hot? Those are the good guys. And what do we do to good guys?”

The little dog was silent for a second, then barked hesitantly. 

“Yes!” Wario praised her, “Now go!”

And with this Wario threw Goldie overboard, the dog immediately sinking into the lava. An awkward couple of seconds followed, broken only by Mario’s coughing at one point. Then, something emerged from the lava’s surface. An enormous form, the titanic body of a golden dragon, two pairs of colossal bat-like wings on its back, claws the size of buildings armed with sharp nails, and three long necks leading to a snarling head of the ferocious hound. Droplets of molten gold dripped from its jaws, its eyes of enormous rubies fixated on its master.

“Wahahahahaha! That’s it, that’s my girl! Now, come on, destroy those punks!”

The three heads pointed the heroes, murder shining in their eyes.

Only at this point did Bowser whisper. 

“Frick.”

“Well, this isn’t so bad.” 

Dimentio and Mercy were currently levitating and enjoying a cup of tea, cordially generated on the spot by the jester.

“What? Did you think I would again endanger you? In your condition? After I apologized? Aha, you must have a rather poor opinion of me.”

“You threw me to a monster that nearly killed me. You hunted down my mother.”

“Well, while the ‘throwing you to a beast’ part is indeed true, even if I must argue that my intentions were different and I believe I’ve already apologized on that… and about your mother... Well, I assure you. I do not intend to bring her any harm.”

“...do you like my mother?”

Dimentio froze for a fraction of a second. 

“...aha. And where does that idea come from?”

“Well... you have been... weirdly kind.”

“I already told you the reasoning behind that.”

“And... I read about the fight for the Chaos Heart.”

Dimentio went silent.

“I... I won’t say anything about the relationship between your mother and I. No, you must learn of it gradually. I don’t want you to get wrong impressions. Let’s just say that... I miss her dearly. I... think you feel the same. Are you worried for her?”

“Yes. I... she is your enemy... and I don’t want you two to fight.”

“Ah. I understand. I assure you. I would never hurt her.”

“I don’t want you to be hurt, either.”

“Oh? And why?”

“I-I don’t know. You are weird.”

“I get that a lot. Usually by the best people, aha.”

“But you’re still evil!”

“That depends on how you choose to see it. Let’s say, I believe in sacrificing the lives of people that will die in some years anyway to create a perfect universe where no one will ever suffer. Sacrifice some for the benefit of many, many more.”

“But you’ll kill a lot of people!”

“No price is too great for a perfect world. The number of the ones that shall perish is nothing when compared to all the ones that will live happily in my perfect world.”

“W-well, you have actual villains working for you!”

“Aha ha. Mercy. I simply need those heroes. Like I needed Count Bleck.”

“W-what?”

“When your mother is returned to me, I will destroy all worlds and make my perfect world. I promised my underlings a world for each one of them. That, they will have. A minuscule, dark prison of a world, but a world nonetheless.”

“That’s not okay!”

“Why? They are evil. As such, they must pay. They pursue power for power itself. I do it for a noble cause. They have no place in my perfect world.”

“And Uncle Mario? Uncle Blumiere? Uncle Luigi?”

“They too, are unfit. Although their ideals may be good, they fight against the possibility of a perfect world, so they shall be eradicated. Swiftly and painlessly. An exception is Blumiere. I... have yet business with that traitor.”

“What about my mom? I-is she ‘unfit’?”

“Oh, no! No, where did you get that idea? You and your mother are fit, the fittest.”

“Why?”

Dimentio was about to say something, but then stopped.

“I... well, I think this is best answered by reading another entry of your mother’s journal. If you-”

Dimentio stopped in completing the sentence when, out of the blue, his magic powers failed him once again, and he pummelled down to the ground, hitting it with a loud SMACK.

“Dimentio?” Mercy asked, lowering herself slowly.

“I chose to fall down!” the jester argued, trying to push himself up with his magic, yet failed, “And I choose not to get up!”

After some seconds, the jester managed to pull himself onto his feet, his magic unreachable to him. 

“I mean! It was the faster method to get to the ground! And some exercise will do some good to me!”

“Really? I’m a kid and I don’t believe that.”

Dimentio cleared his voice. 

“I must say, I have been having-”

Suddenly, his magic returned to him.

“...absolutely no problem!” he finished the sentence, shooting himself up in the air, “See? No problem at all! So where were we? Oh, yes, follow me!”

While the two exited the room they failed to notice someone that had eavesdropped the whole conversation. That certainly had... the interestingness, thought the mysterious figure before disappearing

“Bowser!” Blumiere yelled, as he saw one of the beastly heads readying itself for another fire attack.

The enormous turtle huffed and rolled in front of the mage, defending him from the flames with his shell. When the attack died down, Blumiere jumped onto Bowser’s shoulders.

“Hey! I get that I’m downgraded at shield, but ladder is where I draw the line! Get down, you blue skinned freak!”

“Given your flame attacks are useless against a beast of molten metal and that I don’t think punching it will do any good, plus given that’s he’s made out of liquid, I suggest you stay quiet and let me focus!”

Blumiere shot a spell at one of the heads, that simply swallowed it, unaffected.

“Oh.” was all that Blumiere managed to say before being sent tumbling to the ground alongside Bowser by a swiping claw.

Bowser to get up first, managing a snide comment towards Blumiere before being forced into defence once again. 

“Your attack don’t seem to be doing much, Blecky.”

It was true. Not one of them had even managed to do any sort of damage to Goldie. Both of them, though scorched as if it was a characteristic shared by the heroes, were running out of ideas.

“Mario!” Blumiere called out.

The plumber perked up and ran towards the ex-villain, ducking under the widely opened jaws of one of the head’s and finally arrived near Blumiere, the both of them shielded by the Koopa King. 

“We’re getting destroyed out here! We can’t do anything, we should fall back!” Blumiere proposed.

Mario shook his head. 

“Next time they will be more prepared! Dimentio will probably be there!”

“He will be there in some minutes if we don’t get out. So, you either have a plan-”

“I have a plan. Bowser?”

The Koopa King grunted.

“Do you remember that time when you fought Peach’s castle and won?”

Bowser smiled a gruesome smile.

“Wario is generating the power of the creature. Without him, it should disappear. Probably.”

“Probably?” Blumiere hissed.

“Hey, you, shut up! Mario’s plans always works!” Bowser snarled, “Unlike yours, must I remind you?”

Blumiere lowered his gaze. 

“I’m sorry. I... I don’t think I’ve got much... experience, nor inclination in the field of heroics.”

“Gwah! Learn your place, trash!”

“Bowser, that’s enough.” Mario extracted a mushroom from his pocket, “We only got two left, so make those count.” he said, tossing them to Bowser, who nodded.

“Bwahaha. Those two punks have not learned what’s a true battle! On the one?”

Mario nodded.

“Three.”

“Two.” continued Blumiere, “And let’s hope this works.”

“One! Let’s kick some ass as a giant!” Bowser snarled, gulping down the mushroom and immediately growing to a tremendous size.

“Let’s-a go.” Mario said with a daring smile and climbed onto Bowser’s shell.

Understanding Mario’s plan, Blumiere was quick to follow him, having the advantage thanks to his flying ability. Bowser approached the giant and started to wrestle with two of its heads, that the dragon used as weapons to gut Bowser’s, albeit unsuccessfully.

The monster’s third head snapped rapidly, leaving a bloody bite mark on Bowser’s neck. The king grunted in pain and the head went for another strike, aiming for one of Bowser’s eyes, but the Koopa King was more prepared this time and headbutted the colossus head, causing it to collapse into enormous, golden droplets.

“Goldie! You imbeciles! Now I have to fix her!” Wario snarled and marched towards the destroyed part of his creation.

The pieces of molten gold lifted from the lava and began reassembling the monster’s head. Mario and Blumiere, who had reached Bowser’s shoulder, quickly seized this chance. Blumiere flew straight towards the platform, while Mario jumped yet realized too late that the distance was too great.

“Don’t worry, hero!” Blumiere said, stopping just in front of Mario and extending his sceptre.

Mario immediately understood and grabbed the sceptre at its other end. Blumiere swung the sceptre in an arc, launching Mario right on top of Wario’s platform. 

The sudden extra weight sent it spiralling out of control. Wario spun to him.

“Wah! Wah-y you always come and ruin my things?” Wario snarled, pulling out a golden knife.

Mario brandished his hammer. 

“Didn’t you come to Dimentio’s service specifically to screw me over?”

“Those are just details!” he jabbed at Mario, who swung the hammer, sending the knife to the ground.

“Wah! Here you go, screwing everyt- oof!” Wario was interrupted by Mario’s swift punch into his ribs.

It sent Wario onto his butt.

“Wah!”

“It’s over, Wario. Now, do whatever you need to get that creature under control.” Mario ordered, his hammer at the ready, “Now!”

“Wah! Wah! Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do it!”

Mario lowered the hammer. Wario flashed a smile and whipped out a golden, futuristic looking gun, that shot molten gold. It blocked Mario’s hand and sent his hammer to the ground.

“Wahaha! You fool! Never trust a liar!” Wario picked up Mario’s hammer, “Wah. I think I’ll keep it. Or maybe I’ll sell it. Wah-thever. Wah-t matters is that Dimentio will give me a fortune for you! Today a vault, tomorrow a planet made of gold, full of riches and-”

Blumiere cleared his throat loudly. 

“Aren’t you forgetting about me?” 

In the commotion he had managed to stop the platform from crashing into the lava and was now standing before Wario.

“Wah? You? Wahaha! You wizards are all brains and no brawn! Right here, right now, you can’t beat me! You can’t even-”

Wario was interrupted as Blumiere swung his sceptre with all of his might, the stone on its top hitting Wario square in the face. The villain spat out two teeth and flew off the platform, crashing through the vault’s roof, disappearing in it. Mario was too astounded to even say anything.

“You know,” Blumiere commented, “maybe I like this hero thing more than I thought.”

In the meantime, without its master, the beast was weakened, but was still struggling against the giant Koopa King.

“Bwahaha! Let’s end this!” Bowser screamed before lifting up the dragon-hound and suplexing it onto the clearing in front the vault. 

Behind him, Peach and Timpani used Peach’s parasol as a makeshift boat, surviving the hot tide. Nonetheless the pink princess still scolded him.

“What were you thinking!”

“S-sorry Peach, I was just trying to do something cool!”

“I won’t bake you a cake for the next three kidnappings!”

“What! That’s too much!”

“Everyone!” Mario interrupted, “We have no time to squabble! We have to get into the vault and-”

“Wait a second” Blumiere said, a horrified expression on his face, “Where is Nastasia?”

Only then did the heroes realise the door to the vault was slightly ajar.

A lone koopa troopa wandered the halls of the vault . So far all was going fine. Now she only needed to find the amulet and then-

“Mimi.”

The koopa froze, recognizing the voice. Mimi turned around, dropping the disguise. She had expected to see several of the others, but it was only Nastasia.

“I am not coming back.”

“I know.”

“Then why come here? Why alone?” 

She needed to buy time. She needed to get the upper hand on Nastasia, put her at ease and then attack her. She knew that she could overpower the secretary, but if Nastasia managed to hypnotise her... it was over.

“Because I want to help you...”

Mimi growled. 

“Help me how? Keeping me locked up? Making me see my daughter only once a week?”

“I did not decide that, I assure you...”

“But you helped them!”

“I know! Do you think I don’t feel bad about it?” Nastasia snarled.

That took Mimi by surprise. It was... it was the first time she had heard Nastasia raise her voice.

“You think I didn’t try other ways? I tried to convince them that there had to be another way!” Nastasia continued, tears in her eyes, “But there weren’t. You know what will happen if you go to Dimentio. And... I shouldn’t allow it. I never cared about a perfect world. I... just wanted what was best for Blumiere.”

“...so why aren’t you stopping me?”

“...because I care for you. I... don’t know what to do... I... want to help you.”

“R-really?” 

Mimi made a step towards Nastasia. She had never wanted to hurt her, but... circumstances had forced her hand. The same happened to Nastasia, it seemed. This filled her heart with joy. Nastasia nodded hesitantly.

“A perfect world... it does sound nice. I just want Blumiere to survive, please...”

“Of course. Anything, Nassie.”

“A-and Timpani, please. Blumiere... I don’t know what he would do without her again.”

“Are you sure? Dim could make him anew. He could make all better. Make him forget her. Make him-”

“No. I... I can’t. He wouldn’t be truly happy without her. I’m... happy, as long as he is.”

Mimi nodded and smiled. 

“You are too good, Nassie. The count doesn’t know what’s he’s missing.”

She went towards that secretary and hugged her. The gentle touch broke the dam and Nastasia slumped against her, sobbing and whispering endlessly. 

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be Nassie. All will be better.”

Chapter 21: Clash and Betrayal

“Rod, quick, make a wish!”

“Why, Tod?”

“There’s a falling star!”

“... Tod, it’s noon. We’re having lunch.”

“Look!”

The koopa rolled his eyes and peeked from the guard post.

“Uh. That is one beautiful falling star.”

“What did you wish for?”

“More money.”

“... me too.”

“...”

“...”

“Is it normal for it to be getting closer?”

“Getting wh-”

The koopa never finished the phrase, as the big flaming ball that he and his buddy had flagged as a falling star collided right on them, obliterating the guard post and knocking them out cold. The enormous projectile got up, revealing himself to be none other but Bowser.

“Bwahaha! I’m awesome, like usual! Good throw, Chunky Boy!”

O’Chunks teleported in, alongside the rest of the heroes. 

“Nae, Bowie, you made a good t’rowing ball! And t’ey didn’t even notice!”

Just as the big Scotman pronounced these words, a loud alarm started blaring and hordes of koopas poured out of the gates of the big Wario-head-like building.

“You just couldn’t keep you mouth shut...”

“‘m sorry Nassie.”

“Rise and shine, little one.” a voice whispered into Mercy’s hear.

The small girl rolled onto her other side, mumbling something incoherent that vaguely sounded like ‘Five more minutes.’

“Aha ha. I see. Well, if you don’t want to, I’ll see to it that you will rise.”

A finger poked at her head, not too hard, but it wasn’t the gentlest touch either and suddenly, Mercy felt the soft surface that was her mattress getting farther and ever farther away. With a long sleepy whine, she opened her eyes and saw that it wasn’t the bed that was moving, but her! In fact, she was currently floating, getting higher and ever higher. She squirmed and tried to swim back to the soft bed, but it was useless.

“Dimentio!” she squealed.

“What?” the jester asked, lying on nothing but air, his head resting on his hand.

“Let me down! Now!”

“As you wish, little princess.” 

Dimentio snapped his fingers. Mercy realized too late that she might have worded her sentence a bit poorly. Fortunately, her fall was caught by the soft bed. Nothing hurt, but being woken up like that was uncalled for! She jumped up and chased after Dimentio, trying to hit him, but he simply cooed and floated a little bit higher, out of her reach.

“Aha. You’re like a puppy trying to reach for the food that its owner keeps on the top shelf, cute and hopeless.”

“What was that, you big dummy!”

“I was just trying to wake you up. It seems that I succeeded. Aha!”

“You almost hurt me!”

Dimentio’s smile nearly fell for a second and he came down to Mercy’s level.

“Mercy.” he said, his usual joking tone was nowhere to be heard, “It has come to my attention that I’ve recently endangered you. Understand, that while that was not in my intention, I am truly sorry about it and I will see that it does not happen again. Do you wish to inflict punishment on Shadoo, the material executor?”

“No!”

“Very well. I shall do it, then.” Dimentio continued, an electric sphere appearing in his palm.

Before he could teleport away, Mercy stopped him. 

“Nonono! I-I mean, he shouldn’t be ‘punished’!”

Dimentio slowly nodded. 

“Ah. Of course. Yes, torturing him would be redundant. I shall simply dispose of him.”

“No, that neither! Can you just... let him go?”

“Let him go? He hurt you! He nearly killed you!”

“It was an accident! It happened many times when I trained with Uncle Blu-” she interrupted herself, but it was too late.

Dimentio looked at her, his fist clenched with rage. 

“HE DID WHAT? Oh, now that’s where I draw the line! He’s dead! Dead like... a corpse! Aha!”

“Wait, he didn’t mean to!”

“Matters not. He still hurt you!”

“It was an accident! You hurt me too!”

“Now that’s was different. I was just... trying to help you learn.”

“By throwing a beast at me?”

“Oh, you were completely safe. I had complete control over the situation.”

Mercy wordlessly indicated at her bandaged head.

“...maybe less control than I thought, but I assure you that the circumstances that led to your hurting were not my responsibility.”

“Those were Shadoo’s fault?”

“...I must admit that they were not.”

“So can we just... not do this? Please?”

Dimentio smiled even more. 

“Aha. But of course. If that’s what you wish. If you don’t mind.”

He summoned a walkie talkie. 

“Geralt, mission’s off. I repeat, mission’s off.”

A shot could be heard, followed by the butler’s voice.

“Next time a little earlier, master? It should not be fatal, however.”

Dimentio pocketed the contraption. 

“Well, seems like Shadoo is fine. Mostly. So, maybe we could talk about what I meant to do with you this morning!”

“...and that is?”

“Aha ha ha!” Dimentio laughed evilly, “Aha ha ha. AHA HA HA HA! **AHA HA HA HA!** What, my dear, other than magic?”

“I have to say Bowser, these guys really are better than your normal koopas.” said Mario, dodging a spear jab.

“I know, right?” Peach added, hitting one of Wario’s minions with her parasol, “I mean, they don’t walk straight into holes in the ground? They have weapons? They actually come after you?”

“Ah ah ah!” snorted Bowser sarcastically, currently wrestling with over twenty koopas that had latched onto him and were trying to push him into lava, “Could you stop joking and help me? Seriously, these guys seem to only go after me! I know I exiled them and all, but still!”

Mario pulled out his hammer, swiftly dealt with the koopa in front of him and rushed to help Bowser. A lone koopa appeared out of nowhere, a portable cannon on his shoulder. The group of koopas that were suppressing Bowser jumped off of him. 

“So long, Gay Bowser!” the Bazooka Koopa shouted.

Mario ran even faster, changing direction and heading towards the koopa, but was too slow. The shot went off and an enormous bullet rocketed towards Bowser. Rocketed. Well, that could be argued. More like, slowly moved towards the Koopa King, who simply jumped over it. Mario hit the koopa on the head with his hammer before he could shoot again. 

“That’s-a my line!”

“It seems they continued to use the old equipment.” Peach teased.

“Uh.” Bowser commented, “Well, that’s awkward.”

Blumiere shook his head. 

“Seriously, how did you manage to be a villain for so long?”

“Wah! Exactly my question!” a loud voice echoed.

All heads turned to the direction of the voice’s origin, except one, who’s owner took the distraction as an opportunity to pursue their true objective and sneaked into the vault, unseen by all.

The one who had spoken was Wario, hovering over the heroes in a lavish gold platform, covered in diamonds.

“I thought your minions were better stuff, but Wah!tever. As my gramps said, if you want to do something, do it yourself! So prepare to... wah, well, I don’t feel like fighting, right now, so what I’ll do myself is getting another minion to deal with you. But right now it wah-ll take some time.” he snapped his fingers, “Wah-it! I nearly forgot! Have I showed you my little pet?”

“Oh shit.” whispered Bowser

“Bowser!” Timpani gasped.

“What!? Mercy’s not here, I can swear all I like! I’ll say the f-word and nobody can stop me!”

“Wah! Eyes on me! I’m about to destroy you! Well, Goldie is.”

“Who’s Goldie?” Mario asked.

“She is!” Wario announced, producing what looked like a puppy made of molten gold from behind his back.

The puppy yapped happily. Under all the heroes’ eyes, except for Bowser and the one who had left, Wario petted the little dog. 

“Who’s an evil girl? Wah, hot. Yes, you are! Wah, still too hot.”

Then Goldie saw the heroes and barked angrily.

“Oh, yes, that’s my girl! Wah, why are you so hot? Those are the good guys. And what do we do to good guys?”

The little dog was silent for a second, then barked hesitantly. 

“Yes!” Wario praised her, “Now go!”

And with this Wario threw Goldie overboard, the dog immediately sinking into the lava. An awkward couple of seconds followed, broken only by Mario’s coughing at one point. Then, something emerged from the lava’s surface. An enormous form, the titanic body of a golden dragon, two pairs of colossal bat-like wings on its back, claws the size of buildings armed with sharp nails, and three long necks leading to a snarling head of the ferocious hound. Droplets of molten gold dripped from its jaws, its eyes of enormous rubies fixated on its master.

“Wahahahahaha! That’s it, that’s my girl! Now, come on, destroy those punks!”

The three heads pointed the heroes, murder shining in their eyes.

Only at this point did Bowser whisper. 

“Frick.”

“Well, this isn’t so bad.” 

Dimentio and Mercy were currently levitating and enjoying a cup of tea, cordially generated on the spot by the jester.

“What? Did you think I would again endanger you? In your condition? After I apologized? Aha, you must have a rather poor opinion of me.”

“You threw me to a monster that nearly killed me. You hunted down my mother.”

“Well, while the ‘throwing you to a beast’ part is indeed true, even if I must argue that my intentions were different and I believe I’ve already apologized on that… and about your mother... Well, I assure you. I do not intend to bring her any harm.”

“...do you like my mother?”

Dimentio froze for a fraction of a second. 

“...aha. And where does that idea come from?”

“Well... you have been... weirdly kind.”

“I already told you the reasoning behind that.”

“And... I read about the fight for the Chaos Heart.”

Dimentio went silent.

“I... I won’t say anything about the relationship between your mother and I. No, you must learn of it gradually. I don’t want you to get wrong impressions. Let’s just say that... I miss her dearly. I... think you feel the same. Are you worried for her?”

“Yes. I... she is your enemy... and I don’t want you two to fight.”

“Ah. I understand. I assure you. I would never hurt her.”

“I don’t want you to be hurt, either.”

“Oh? And why?”

“I-I don’t know. You are weird.”

“I get that a lot. Usually by the best people, aha.”

“But you’re still evil!”

“That depends on how you choose to see it. Let’s say, I believe in sacrificing the lives of people that will die in some years anyway to create a perfect universe where no one will ever suffer. Sacrifice some for the benefit of many, many more.”

“But you’ll kill a lot of people!”

“No price is too great for a perfect world. The number of the ones that shall perish is nothing when compared to all the ones that will live happily in my perfect world.”

“W-well, you have actual villains working for you!”

“Aha ha. Mercy. I simply need those heroes. Like I needed Count Bleck.”

“W-what?”

“When your mother is returned to me, I will destroy all worlds and make my perfect world. I promised my underlings a world for each one of them. That, they will have. A minuscule, dark prison of a world, but a world nonetheless.”

“That’s not okay!”

“Why? They are evil. As such, they must pay. They pursue power for power itself. I do it for a noble cause. They have no place in my perfect world.”

“And Uncle Mario? Uncle Blumiere? Uncle Luigi?”

“They too, are unfit. Although their ideals may be good, they fight against the possibility of a perfect world, so they shall be eradicated. Swiftly and painlessly. An exception is Blumiere. I... have yet business with that traitor.”

“What about my mom? I-is she ‘unfit’?”

“Oh, no! No, where did you get that idea? You and your mother are fit, the fittest.”

“Why?”

Dimentio was about to say something, but then stopped.

“I... well, I think this is best answered by reading another entry of your mother’s journal. If you-”

Dimentio stopped in completing the sentence when, out of the blue, his magic powers failed him once again, and he pummelled down to the ground, hitting it with a loud SMACK.

“Dimentio?” Mercy asked, lowering herself slowly.

“I chose to fall down!” the jester argued, trying to push himself up with his magic, yet failed, “And I choose not to get up!”

After some seconds, the jester managed to pull himself onto his feet, his magic unreachable to him. 

“I mean! It was the faster method to get to the ground! And some exercise will do some good to me!”

“Really? I’m a kid and I don’t believe that.”

Dimentio cleared his voice. 

“I must say, I have been having-”

Suddenly, his magic returned to him.

“...absolutely no problem!” he finished the sentence, shooting himself up in the air, “See? No problem at all! So where were we? Oh, yes, follow me!”

While the two exited the room they failed to notice someone that had eavesdropped the whole conversation. That certainly had... the interestingness, thought the mysterious figure before disappearing

“Bowser!” Blumiere yelled, as he saw one of the beastly heads readying itself for another fire attack.

The enormous turtle huffed and rolled in front of the mage, defending him from the flames with his shell. When the attack died down, Blumiere jumped onto Bowser’s shoulders.

“Hey! I get that I’m downgraded at shield, but ladder is where I draw the line! Get down, you blue skinned freak!”

“Given your flame attacks are useless against a beast of molten metal and that I don’t think punching it will do any good, plus given that’s he’s made out of liquid, I suggest you stay quiet and let me focus!”

Blumiere shot a spell at one of the heads, that simply swallowed it, unaffected.

“Oh.” was all that Blumiere managed to say before being sent tumbling to the ground alongside Bowser by a swiping claw.

Bowser to get up first, managing a snide comment towards Blumiere before being forced into defence once again. 

“Your attack don’t seem to be doing much, Blecky.”

It was true. Not one of them had even managed to do any sort of damage to Goldie. Both of them, though scorched as if it was a characteristic shared by the heroes, were running out of ideas.

“Mario!” Blumiere called out.

The plumber perked up and ran towards the ex-villain, ducking under the widely opened jaws of one of the head’s and finally arrived near Blumiere, the both of them shielded by the Koopa King. 

“We’re getting destroyed out here! We can’t do anything, we should fall back!” Blumiere proposed.

Mario shook his head. 

“Next time they will be more prepared! Dimentio will probably be there!”

“He will be there in some minutes if we don’t get out. So, you either have a plan-”

“I have a plan. Bowser?”

The Koopa King grunted.

“Do you remember that time when you fought Peach’s castle and won?”

Bowser smiled a gruesome smile.

“Wario is generating the power of the creature. Without him, it should disappear. Probably.”

“Probably?” Blumiere hissed.

“Hey, you, shut up! Mario’s plans always works!” Bowser snarled, “Unlike yours, must I remind you?”

Blumiere lowered his gaze. 

“I’m sorry. I... I don’t think I’ve got much... experience, nor inclination in the field of heroics.”

“Gwah! Learn your place, trash!”

“Bowser, that’s enough.” Mario extracted a mushroom from his pocket, “We only got two left, so make those count.” he said, tossing them to Bowser, who nodded.

“Bwahaha. Those two punks have not learned what’s a true battle! On the one?”

Mario nodded.

“Three.”

“Two.” continued Blumiere, “And let’s hope this works.”

“One! Let’s kick some ass as a giant!” Bowser snarled, gulping down the mushroom and immediately growing to a tremendous size.

“Let’s-a go.” Mario said with a daring smile and climbed onto Bowser’s shell.

Understanding Mario’s plan, Blumiere was quick to follow him, having the advantage thanks to his flying ability. Bowser approached the giant and started to wrestle with two of its heads, that the dragon used as weapons to gut Bowser’s, albeit unsuccessfully.

The monster’s third head snapped rapidly, leaving a bloody bite mark on Bowser’s neck. The king grunted in pain and the head went for another strike, aiming for one of Bowser’s eyes, but the Koopa King was more prepared this time and headbutted the colossus head, causing it to collapse into enormous, golden droplets.

“Goldie! You imbeciles! Now I have to fix her!” Wario snarled and marched towards the destroyed part of his creation.

The pieces of molten gold lifted from the lava and began reassembling the monster’s head. Mario and Blumiere, who had reached Bowser’s shoulder, quickly seized this chance. Blumiere flew straight towards the platform, while Mario jumped yet realized too late that the distance was too great.

“Don’t worry, hero!” Blumiere said, stopping just in front of Mario and extending his sceptre.

Mario immediately understood and grabbed the sceptre at its other end. Blumiere swung the sceptre in an arc, launching Mario right on top of Wario’s platform. 

The sudden extra weight sent it spiralling out of control. Wario spun to him.

“Wah! Wah-y you always come and ruin my things?” Wario snarled, pulling out a golden knife.

Mario brandished his hammer. 

“Didn’t you come to Dimentio’s service specifically to screw me over?”

“Those are just details!” he jabbed at Mario, who swung the hammer, sending the knife to the ground.

“Wah! Here you go, screwing everyt- oof!” Wario was interrupted by Mario’s swift punch into his ribs.

It sent Wario onto his butt.

“Wah!”

“It’s over, Wario. Now, do whatever you need to get that creature under control.” Mario ordered, his hammer at the ready, “Now!”

“Wah! Wah! Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do it!”

Mario lowered the hammer. Wario flashed a smile and whipped out a golden, futuristic looking gun, that shot molten gold. It blocked Mario’s hand and sent his hammer to the ground.

“Wahaha! You fool! Never trust a liar!” Wario picked up Mario’s hammer, “Wah. I think I’ll keep it. Or maybe I’ll sell it. Wah-thever. Wah-t matters is that Dimentio will give me a fortune for you! Today a vault, tomorrow a planet made of gold, full of riches and-”

Blumiere cleared his throat loudly. 

“Aren’t you forgetting about me?” 

In the commotion he had managed to stop the platform from crashing into the lava and was now standing before Wario.

“Wah? You? Wahaha! You wizards are all brains and no brawn! Right here, right now, you can’t beat me! You can’t even-”

Wario was interrupted as Blumiere swung his sceptre with all of his might, the stone on its top hitting Wario square in the face. The villain spat out two teeth and flew off the platform, crashing through the vault’s roof, disappearing in it. Mario was too astounded to even say anything.

“You know,” Blumiere commented, “maybe I like this hero thing more than I thought.”

In the meantime, without its master, the beast was weakened, but was still struggling against the giant Koopa King.

“Bwahaha! Let’s end this!” Bowser screamed before lifting up the dragon-hound and suplexing it onto the clearing in front the vault. 

Behind him, Peach and Timpani used Peach’s parasol as a makeshift boat, surviving the hot tide. Nonetheless the pink princess still scolded him.

“What were you thinking!”

“S-sorry Peach, I was just trying to do something cool!”

“I won’t bake you a cake for the next three kidnappings!”

“What! That’s too much!”

“Everyone!” Mario interrupted, “We have no time to squabble! We have to get into the vault and-”

“Wait a second” Blumiere said, a horrified expression on his face, “Where is Nastasia?”

Only then did the heroes realise the door to the vault was slightly ajar.

A lone koopa troopa wandered the halls of the vault . So far all was going fine. Now she only needed to find the amulet and then-

“Mimi.”

The koopa froze, recognizing the voice. Mimi turned around, dropping the disguise. She had expected to see several of the others, but it was only Nastasia.

“I am not coming back.”

“I know.”

“Then why come here? Why alone?” 

She needed to buy time. She needed to get the upper hand on Nastasia, put her at ease and then attack her. She knew that she could overpower the secretary, but if Nastasia managed to hypnotise her... it was over.

“Because I want to help you...”

Mimi growled. 

“Help me how? Keeping me locked up? Making me see my daughter only once a week?”

“I did not decide that, I assure you...”

“But you helped them!”

“I know! Do you think I don’t feel bad about it?” Nastasia snarled.

That took Mimi by surprise. It was... it was the first time she had heard Nastasia raise her voice.

“You think I didn’t try other ways? I tried to convince them that there had to be another way!” Nastasia continued, tears in her eyes, “But there weren’t. You know what will happen if you go to Dimentio. And... I shouldn’t allow it. I never cared about a perfect world. I... just wanted what was best for Blumiere.”

“...so why aren’t you stopping me?”

“...because I care for you. I... don’t know what to do... I... want to help you.”

“R-really?” 

Mimi made a step towards Nastasia. She had never wanted to hurt her, but... circumstances had forced her hand. The same happened to Nastasia, it seemed. This filled her heart with joy. Nastasia nodded hesitantly.

“A perfect world... it does sound nice. I just want Blumiere to survive, please...”

“Of course. Anything, Nassie.”

“A-and Timpani, please. Blumiere... I don’t know what he would do without her again.”

“Are you sure? Dim could make him anew. He could make all better. Make him forget her. Make him-”

“No. I... I can’t. He wouldn’t be truly happy without her. I’m... happy, as long as he is.”

Mimi nodded and smiled. 

“You are too good, Nassie. The count doesn’t know what’s he’s missing.”

She went towards that secretary and hugged her. The gentle touch broke the dam and Nastasia slumped against her, sobbing and whispering endlessly. 

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be Nassie. All will be better.”

Chapter 21: Clash and Betrayal

“Rod, quick, make a wish!”

“Why, Tod?”

“There’s a falling star!”

“... Tod, it’s noon. We’re having lunch.”

“Look!”

The koopa rolled his eyes and peeked from the guard post.

“Uh. That is one beautiful falling star.”

“What did you wish for?”

“More money.”

“... me too.”

“...”

“...”

“Is it normal for it to be getting closer?”

“Getting wh-”

The koopa never finished the phrase, as the big flaming ball that he and his buddy had flagged as a falling star collided right on them, obliterating the guard post and knocking them out cold. The enormous projectile got up, revealing himself to be none other but Bowser.

“Bwahaha! I’m awesome, like usual! Good throw, Chunky Boy!”

O’Chunks teleported in, alongside the rest of the heroes. 

“Nae, Bowie, you made a good t’rowing ball! And t’ey didn’t even notice!”

Just as the big Scotman pronounced these words, a loud alarm started blaring and hordes of koopas poured out of the gates of the big Wario-head-like building.

“You just couldn’t keep you mouth shut...”

“‘m sorry Nassie.”

“Rise and shine, little one.” a voice whispered into Mercy’s hear.

The small girl rolled onto her other side, mumbling something incoherent that vaguely sounded like ‘Five more minutes.’

“Aha ha. I see. Well, if you don’t want to, I’ll see to it that you will rise.”

A finger poked at her head, not too hard, but it wasn’t the gentlest touch either and suddenly, Mercy felt the soft surface that was her mattress getting farther and ever farther away. With a long sleepy whine, she opened her eyes and saw that it wasn’t the bed that was moving, but her! In fact, she was currently floating, getting higher and ever higher. She squirmed and tried to swim back to the soft bed, but it was useless.

“Dimentio!” she squealed.

“What?” the jester asked, lying on nothing but air, his head resting on his hand.

“Let me down! Now!”

“As you wish, little princess.” 

Dimentio snapped his fingers. Mercy realized too late that she might have worded her sentence a bit poorly. Fortunately, her fall was caught by the soft bed. Nothing hurt, but being woken up like that was uncalled for! She jumped up and chased after Dimentio, trying to hit him, but he simply cooed and floated a little bit higher, out of her reach.

“Aha. You’re like a puppy trying to reach for the food that its owner keeps on the top shelf, cute and hopeless.”

“What was that, you big dummy!”

“I was just trying to wake you up. It seems that I succeeded. Aha!”

“You almost hurt me!”

Dimentio’s smile nearly fell for a second and he came down to Mercy’s level.

“Mercy.” he said, his usual joking tone was nowhere to be heard, “It has come to my attention that I’ve recently endangered you. Understand, that while that was not in my intention, I am truly sorry about it and I will see that it does not happen again. Do you wish to inflict punishment on Shadoo, the material executor?”

“No!”

“Very well. I shall do it, then.” Dimentio continued, an electric sphere appearing in his palm.

Before he could teleport away, Mercy stopped him. 

“Nonono! I-I mean, he shouldn’t be ‘punished’!”

Dimentio slowly nodded. 

“Ah. Of course. Yes, torturing him would be redundant. I shall simply dispose of him.”

“No, that neither! Can you just... let him go?”

“Let him go? He hurt you! He nearly killed you!”

“It was an accident! It happened many times when I trained with Uncle Blu-” she interrupted herself, but it was too late.

Dimentio looked at her, his fist clenched with rage. 

“HE DID WHAT? Oh, now that’s where I draw the line! He’s dead! Dead like... a corpse! Aha!”

“Wait, he didn’t mean to!”

“Matters not. He still hurt you!”

“It was an accident! You hurt me too!”

“Now that’s was different. I was just... trying to help you learn.”

“By throwing a beast at me?”

“Oh, you were completely safe. I had complete control over the situation.”

Mercy wordlessly indicated at her bandaged head.

“...maybe less control than I thought, but I assure you that the circumstances that led to your hurting were not my responsibility.”

“Those were Shadoo’s fault?”

“...I must admit that they were not.”

“So can we just... not do this? Please?”

Dimentio smiled even more. 

“Aha. But of course. If that’s what you wish. If you don’t mind.”

He summoned a walkie talkie. 

“Geralt, mission’s off. I repeat, mission’s off.”

A shot could be heard, followed by the butler’s voice.

“Next time a little earlier, master? It should not be fatal, however.”

Dimentio pocketed the contraption. 

“Well, seems like Shadoo is fine. Mostly. So, maybe we could talk about what I meant to do with you this morning!”

“...and that is?”

“Aha ha ha!” Dimentio laughed evilly, “Aha ha ha. AHA HA HA HA! **AHA HA HA HA!** What, my dear, other than magic?”

“I have to say Bowser, these guys really are better than your normal koopas.” said Mario, dodging a spear jab.

“I know, right?” Peach added, hitting one of Wario’s minions with her parasol, “I mean, they don’t walk straight into holes in the ground? They have weapons? They actually come after you?”

“Ah ah ah!” snorted Bowser sarcastically, currently wrestling with over twenty koopas that had latched onto him and were trying to push him into lava, “Could you stop joking and help me? Seriously, these guys seem to only go after me! I know I exiled them and all, but still!”

Mario pulled out his hammer, swiftly dealt with the koopa in front of him and rushed to help Bowser. A lone koopa appeared out of nowhere, a portable cannon on his shoulder. The group of koopas that were suppressing Bowser jumped off of him. 

“So long, Gay Bowser!” the Bazooka Koopa shouted.

Mario ran even faster, changing direction and heading towards the koopa, but was too slow. The shot went off and an enormous bullet rocketed towards Bowser. Rocketed. Well, that could be argued. More like, slowly moved towards the Koopa King, who simply jumped over it. Mario hit the koopa on the head with his hammer before he could shoot again. 

“That’s-a my line!”

“It seems they continued to use the old equipment.” Peach teased.

“Uh.” Bowser commented, “Well, that’s awkward.”

Blumiere shook his head. 

“Seriously, how did you manage to be a villain for so long?”

“Wah! Exactly my question!” a loud voice echoed.

All heads turned to the direction of the voice’s origin, except one, who’s owner took the distraction as an opportunity to pursue their true objective and sneaked into the vault, unseen by all.

The one who had spoken was Wario, hovering over the heroes in a lavish gold platform, covered in diamonds.

“I thought your minions were better stuff, but Wah!tever. As my gramps said, if you want to do something, do it yourself! So prepare to... wah, well, I don’t feel like fighting, right now, so what I’ll do myself is getting another minion to deal with you. But right now it wah-ll take some time.” he snapped his fingers, “Wah-it! I nearly forgot! Have I showed you my little pet?”

“Oh shit.” whispered Bowser

“Bowser!” Timpani gasped.

“What!? Mercy’s not here, I can swear all I like! I’ll say the f-word and nobody can stop me!”

“Wah! Eyes on me! I’m about to destroy you! Well, Goldie is.”

“Who’s Goldie?” Mario asked.

“She is!” Wario announced, producing what looked like a puppy made of molten gold from behind his back.

The puppy yapped happily. Under all the heroes’ eyes, except for Bowser and the one who had left, Wario petted the little dog. 

“Who’s an evil girl? Wah, hot. Yes, you are! Wah, still too hot.”

Then Goldie saw the heroes and barked angrily.

“Oh, yes, that’s my girl! Wah, why are you so hot? Those are the good guys. And what do we do to good guys?”

The little dog was silent for a second, then barked hesitantly. 

“Yes!” Wario praised her, “Now go!”

And with this Wario threw Goldie overboard, the dog immediately sinking into the lava. An awkward couple of seconds followed, broken only by Mario’s coughing at one point. Then, something emerged from the lava’s surface. An enormous form, the titanic body of a golden dragon, two pairs of colossal bat-like wings on its back, claws the size of buildings armed with sharp nails, and three long necks leading to a snarling head of the ferocious hound. Droplets of molten gold dripped from its jaws, its eyes of enormous rubies fixated on its master.

“Wahahahahaha! That’s it, that’s my girl! Now, come on, destroy those punks!”

The three heads pointed the heroes, murder shining in their eyes.

Only at this point did Bowser whisper. 

“Frick.”

“Well, this isn’t so bad.” 

Dimentio and Mercy were currently levitating and enjoying a cup of tea, cordially generated on the spot by the jester.

“What? Did you think I would again endanger you? In your condition? After I apologized? Aha, you must have a rather poor opinion of me.”

“You threw me to a monster that nearly killed me. You hunted down my mother.”

“Well, while the ‘throwing you to a beast’ part is indeed true, even if I must argue that my intentions were different and I believe I’ve already apologized on that… and about your mother... Well, I assure you. I do not intend to bring her any harm.”

“...do you like my mother?”

Dimentio froze for a fraction of a second. 

“...aha. And where does that idea come from?”

“Well... you have been... weirdly kind.”

“I already told you the reasoning behind that.”

“And... I read about the fight for the Chaos Heart.”

Dimentio went silent.

“I... I won’t say anything about the relationship between your mother and I. No, you must learn of it gradually. I don’t want you to get wrong impressions. Let’s just say that... I miss her dearly. I... think you feel the same. Are you worried for her?”

“Yes. I... she is your enemy... and I don’t want you two to fight.”

“Ah. I understand. I assure you. I would never hurt her.”

“I don’t want you to be hurt, either.”

“Oh? And why?”

“I-I don’t know. You are weird.”

“I get that a lot. Usually by the best people, aha.”

“But you’re still evil!”

“That depends on how you choose to see it. Let’s say, I believe in sacrificing the lives of people that will die in some years anyway to create a perfect universe where no one will ever suffer. Sacrifice some for the benefit of many, many more.”

“But you’ll kill a lot of people!”

“No price is too great for a perfect world. The number of the ones that shall perish is nothing when compared to all the ones that will live happily in my perfect world.”

“W-well, you have actual villains working for you!”

“Aha ha. Mercy. I simply need those heroes. Like I needed Count Bleck.”

“W-what?”

“When your mother is returned to me, I will destroy all worlds and make my perfect world. I promised my underlings a world for each one of them. That, they will have. A minuscule, dark prison of a world, but a world nonetheless.”

“That’s not okay!”

“Why? They are evil. As such, they must pay. They pursue power for power itself. I do it for a noble cause. They have no place in my perfect world.”

“And Uncle Mario? Uncle Blumiere? Uncle Luigi?”

“They too, are unfit. Although their ideals may be good, they fight against the possibility of a perfect world, so they shall be eradicated. Swiftly and painlessly. An exception is Blumiere. I... have yet business with that traitor.”

“What about my mom? I-is she ‘unfit’?”

“Oh, no! No, where did you get that idea? You and your mother are fit, the fittest.”

“Why?”

Dimentio was about to say something, but then stopped.

“I... well, I think this is best answered by reading another entry of your mother’s journal. If you-”

Dimentio stopped in completing the sentence when, out of the blue, his magic powers failed him once again, and he pummelled down to the ground, hitting it with a loud SMACK.

“Dimentio?” Mercy asked, lowering herself slowly.

“I chose to fall down!” the jester argued, trying to push himself up with his magic, yet failed, “And I choose not to get up!”

After some seconds, the jester managed to pull himself onto his feet, his magic unreachable to him. 

“I mean! It was the faster method to get to the ground! And some exercise will do some good to me!”

“Really? I’m a kid and I don’t believe that.”

Dimentio cleared his voice. 

“I must say, I have been having-”

Suddenly, his magic returned to him.

“...absolutely no problem!” he finished the sentence, shooting himself up in the air, “See? No problem at all! So where were we? Oh, yes, follow me!”

While the two exited the room they failed to notice someone that had eavesdropped the whole conversation. That certainly had... the interestingness, thought the mysterious figure before disappearing

“Bowser!” Blumiere yelled, as he saw one of the beastly heads readying itself for another fire attack.

The enormous turtle huffed and rolled in front of the mage, defending him from the flames with his shell. When the attack died down, Blumiere jumped onto Bowser’s shoulders.

“Hey! I get that I’m downgraded at shield, but ladder is where I draw the line! Get down, you blue skinned freak!”

“Given your flame attacks are useless against a beast of molten metal and that I don’t think punching it will do any good, plus given that’s he’s made out of liquid, I suggest you stay quiet and let me focus!”

Blumiere shot a spell at one of the heads, that simply swallowed it, unaffected.

“Oh.” was all that Blumiere managed to say before being sent tumbling to the ground alongside Bowser by a swiping claw.

Bowser to get up first, managing a snide comment towards Blumiere before being forced into defence once again. 

“Your attack don’t seem to be doing much, Blecky.”

It was true. Not one of them had even managed to do any sort of damage to Goldie. Both of them, though scorched as if it was a characteristic shared by the heroes, were running out of ideas.

“Mario!” Blumiere called out.

The plumber perked up and ran towards the ex-villain, ducking under the widely opened jaws of one of the head’s and finally arrived near Blumiere, the both of them shielded by the Koopa King. 

“We’re getting destroyed out here! We can’t do anything, we should fall back!” Blumiere proposed.

Mario shook his head. 

“Next time they will be more prepared! Dimentio will probably be there!”

“He will be there in some minutes if we don’t get out. So, you either have a plan-”

“I have a plan. Bowser?”

The Koopa King grunted.

“Do you remember that time when you fought Peach’s castle and won?”

Bowser smiled a gruesome smile.

“Wario is generating the power of the creature. Without him, it should disappear. Probably.”

“Probably?” Blumiere hissed.

“Hey, you, shut up! Mario’s plans always works!” Bowser snarled, “Unlike yours, must I remind you?”

Blumiere lowered his gaze. 

“I’m sorry. I... I don’t think I’ve got much... experience, nor inclination in the field of heroics.”

“Gwah! Learn your place, trash!”

“Bowser, that’s enough.” Mario extracted a mushroom from his pocket, “We only got two left, so make those count.” he said, tossing them to Bowser, who nodded.

“Bwahaha. Those two punks have not learned what’s a true battle! On the one?”

Mario nodded.

“Three.”

“Two.” continued Blumiere, “And let’s hope this works.”

“One! Let’s kick some ass as a giant!” Bowser snarled, gulping down the mushroom and immediately growing to a tremendous size.

“Let’s-a go.” Mario said with a daring smile and climbed onto Bowser’s shell.

Understanding Mario’s plan, Blumiere was quick to follow him, having the advantage thanks to his flying ability. Bowser approached the giant and started to wrestle with two of its heads, that the dragon used as weapons to gut Bowser’s, albeit unsuccessfully.

The monster’s third head snapped rapidly, leaving a bloody bite mark on Bowser’s neck. The king grunted in pain and the head went for another strike, aiming for one of Bowser’s eyes, but the Koopa King was more prepared this time and headbutted the colossus head, causing it to collapse into enormous, golden droplets.

“Goldie! You imbeciles! Now I have to fix her!” Wario snarled and marched towards the destroyed part of his creation.

The pieces of molten gold lifted from the lava and began reassembling the monster’s head. Mario and Blumiere, who had reached Bowser’s shoulder, quickly seized this chance. Blumiere flew straight towards the platform, while Mario jumped yet realized too late that the distance was too great.

“Don’t worry, hero!” Blumiere said, stopping just in front of Mario and extending his sceptre.

Mario immediately understood and grabbed the sceptre at its other end. Blumiere swung the sceptre in an arc, launching Mario right on top of Wario’s platform. 

The sudden extra weight sent it spiralling out of control. Wario spun to him.

“Wah! Wah-y you always come and ruin my things?” Wario snarled, pulling out a golden knife.

Mario brandished his hammer. 

“Didn’t you come to Dimentio’s service specifically to screw me over?”

“Those are just details!” he jabbed at Mario, who swung the hammer, sending the knife to the ground.

“Wah! Here you go, screwing everyt- oof!” Wario was interrupted by Mario’s swift punch into his ribs.

It sent Wario onto his butt.

“Wah!”

“It’s over, Wario. Now, do whatever you need to get that creature under control.” Mario ordered, his hammer at the ready, “Now!”

“Wah! Wah! Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do it!”

Mario lowered the hammer. Wario flashed a smile and whipped out a golden, futuristic looking gun, that shot molten gold. It blocked Mario’s hand and sent his hammer to the ground.

“Wahaha! You fool! Never trust a liar!” Wario picked up Mario’s hammer, “Wah. I think I’ll keep it. Or maybe I’ll sell it. Wah-thever. Wah-t matters is that Dimentio will give me a fortune for you! Today a vault, tomorrow a planet made of gold, full of riches and-”

Blumiere cleared his throat loudly. 

“Aren’t you forgetting about me?” 

In the commotion he had managed to stop the platform from crashing into the lava and was now standing before Wario.

“Wah? You? Wahaha! You wizards are all brains and no brawn! Right here, right now, you can’t beat me! You can’t even-”

Wario was interrupted as Blumiere swung his sceptre with all of his might, the stone on its top hitting Wario square in the face. The villain spat out two teeth and flew off the platform, crashing through the vault’s roof, disappearing in it. Mario was too astounded to even say anything.

“You know,” Blumiere commented, “maybe I like this hero thing more than I thought.”

In the meantime, without its master, the beast was weakened, but was still struggling against the giant Koopa King.

“Bwahaha! Let’s end this!” Bowser screamed before lifting up the dragon-hound and suplexing it onto the clearing in front the vault. 

Behind him, Peach and Timpani used Peach’s parasol as a makeshift boat, surviving the hot tide. Nonetheless the pink princess still scolded him.

“What were you thinking!”

“S-sorry Peach, I was just trying to do something cool!”

“I won’t bake you a cake for the next three kidnappings!”

“What! That’s too much!”

“Everyone!” Mario interrupted, “We have no time to squabble! We have to get into the vault and-”

“Wait a second” Blumiere said, a horrified expression on his face, “Where is Nastasia?”

Only then did the heroes realise the door to the vault was slightly ajar.

A lone koopa troopa wandered the halls of the vault . So far all was going fine. Now she only needed to find the amulet and then-

“Mimi.”

The koopa froze, recognizing the voice. Mimi turned around, dropping the disguise. She had expected to see several of the others, but it was only Nastasia.

“I am not coming back.”

“I know.”

“Then why come here? Why alone?” 

She needed to buy time. She needed to get the upper hand on Nastasia, put her at ease and then attack her. She knew that she could overpower the secretary, but if Nastasia managed to hypnotise her... it was over.

“Because I want to help you...”

Mimi growled. 

“Help me how? Keeping me locked up? Making me see my daughter only once a week?”

“I did not decide that, I assure you...”

“But you helped them!”

“I know! Do you think I don’t feel bad about it?” Nastasia snarled.

That took Mimi by surprise. It was... it was the first time she had heard Nastasia raise her voice.

“You think I didn’t try other ways? I tried to convince them that there had to be another way!” Nastasia continued, tears in her eyes, “But there weren’t. You know what will happen if you go to Dimentio. And... I shouldn’t allow it. I never cared about a perfect world. I... just wanted what was best for Blumiere.”

“...so why aren’t you stopping me?”

“...because I care for you. I... don’t know what to do... I... want to help you.”

“R-really?” 

Mimi made a step towards Nastasia. She had never wanted to hurt her, but... circumstances had forced her hand. The same happened to Nastasia, it seemed. This filled her heart with joy. Nastasia nodded hesitantly.

“A perfect world... it does sound nice. I just want Blumiere to survive, please...”

“Of course. Anything, Nassie.”

“A-and Timpani, please. Blumiere... I don’t know what he would do without her again.”

“Are you sure? Dim could make him anew. He could make all better. Make him forget her. Make him-”

“No. I... I can’t. He wouldn’t be truly happy without her. I’m... happy, as long as he is.”

Mimi nodded and smiled. 

“You are too good, Nassie. The count doesn’t know what’s he’s missing.”

She went towards that secretary and hugged her. The gentle touch broke the dam and Nastasia slumped against her, sobbing and whispering endlessly. 

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be Nassie. All will be better.”


	22. Chapter 22: Green

Chapter 22: Green

Pixl couldn’t say that she enjoyed her new life. She felt like she had traded one prison for another. At least, she could see. At least, she was no more in the dark. The curious jester that had trapped her still liked to ask her to talk. He was truly weird.

She rambled on and on, about everything, and he simply stood there and listened, almost never interrupting. He was the main reason she was still trapped, even though he had freed her in the first place, but she couldn’t bring herself to loathe him as she did her original captors. Maybe it was because of his weird kindness. At her request he had provided her with all sorts of books and had even shared some of his food with her, before she told him she didn’t actually need to eat. Even after that he still left her a cup of tea every morning, because of that one time she had commented about liking the smell.

Maybe it was because she could see that he was a prisoner as well, just in a... different prison. The occasional screams that broke the long night’s silence were blood curdling. They had established a routine.

In the morning the jester would wake up very early, get his breakfast and her tea from the kitchen and then they would discuss. Even if he had one of his night terrors, he would always wake up and act like nothing happened. So, it was all the weirder when one day, almost a month after he had ‘freed’ her, he simply didn’t get up.

Her first thought was that he had died, but this line of thought was immediately interrupted when she heard a pained whine coming from the bed.

“G-good morning, Pixl.” the jester greeted her with a strained voice, “I-I would get up, but I’m n-not feeling all too well. Nothing t-that a good rest can’t fix, aha.”

He said it, but not even he himself seemed to believe it. Pixl started talking, unprompted. Even afterwards she couldn’t remember what she talked about, she could only barely recall that it was something she had already told him about, but the jester didn’t seem to mind. She rambled on and on, the sun rose and fell.

The following day the jester’s condition didn’t seem to be better. The opposite happened and the following day he got only worse. The morning of the third day she was awoken from her thoughts by a loud noise. The jester had dragged himself out of bed, falling ungracefully onto the ground.

She watched him as he got closer and closer to her cage, with tired movements. He lifted a thin hand and only then did Pixl realised that he hadn’t eaten or drank in three days. The jester pulled himself up, using the cage as a support, just enough to face her.

He tried to speak, but what came from his dried, disused throat was only a gurgled mess. He tried again and, while being only louder than a whisper, was comprehensible.

“W-well, i-it looks like our r-roads separate h-here, Pixl. I-I only have a-a mild fever. Y-yes, b-but w-when the k-king sends in s-someone to cure m-me, they’ll find y-you.”

He fiddled with the lock of the cage, managing at the end to open it, collapsing on the floor afterwards. Pixl left her prison, glancing worriedly at her captor who gave her a strained smile. He was without his usual mask, only wearing rags that loosely resembled pyjamas.

“G-go. The w-window should be open. A-at least these few w-weeks were pleasant enough, aha.”

Pixl approached the opening on the wall. Freedom was there, at her reach, finally. She turned around and looked at the jester. The boy had passed out on the floor, exhausted by his last act.

It was there she realised something. Nobody would ever come for the jester. He had broken and wasn’t worth repairing. He was no more than a tool, just like... her. He wasn’t useful, not anymore, and he was going to be discarded.

It was there that she took a decision that she would question afterwards, but never regret.

Mimi was genuinely worried. Dimentio hadn’t awoken yet and when she went to check on him, she could feel that he was burning up even through the mask that she hadn’t dared to take off. It was clear that his sickness had something to do with the Pure Hearts, but she wasn’t exactly the most experienced magician around.

So, all she could do was sit and wait. At least, until a groan arose from Dimentio’s lying form. She rushed to his side immediately.

“Dim?”

He turned and twisted lazily in the bed. She rested a hand on his masked forehead and found that he was even hotter than before. Dimentio’s head turned to face her and the eyes on his mask widened a little in recognition.

“... Pixl?”

Mimi was taken aback, then it clicked. Ah. Of course. He probably couldn’t think clear and mistook her for this Pixl person. Still, a part of her was offended. Who was this ‘Pixl’ and how dared she occupy such big space in Dimentio’s head?

... well, she could figure it out. A malevolent idea appeared in her mind. What if she played along?

“It’s me.”

Dimentio’s smile got warmer.

“I knew you’d come back. You... you were the first one that showed me kindness.”

Mimi put a wet rag onto his forehead, hoping it would help.

“Aha. You know, t-this actually reminds me of that time.”

“What time?”

“W-when you came back. Nobody, apart from my parents, had ever done something like that. I... had been awful, trapping you. Forcing you to help me. Forcing me not to think.”

Mimi heart hurt a little. What had happened in Dimentio’s past? It could not be good.

“You cared for me in a way no one else ever had. You had nothing to gain from helping me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. You fed me, you cured me. A-after you were… gone… my world was crushed. Many of what lesser minds would call atrocities were committed that day. How could those imperfect beings live, while you had been wiped out, like a doodle on a blackboard?

When I stopped, because I had to, I knew I… just had to wait. Yes, I knew you would be back. After I fixed all worlds. I… knew you would be back. I… wouldn’t have to expose myself. All would be better.”

A mischievous grin formed on Dimentio’s mask, as he started taking it off, something in Mimi’s eyes stopping her from distinguish his features, viewing his face as a pale blue stain, a yellow light on the right

“But you’re here now. We can make our perfect world. Together. Starting by now. We’ll right what has been wronged. May we begin with me saying what I got to say only once? Pixl… I… I love you.”

With this words Dimentio’s head shot towards her and kissed her on the lips, something she knew she had wanted, but again, those words weren’t meant for her. That kiss wasn’t meant for her. Big, ugly tears flowed from her eyes.

As Dimentio broke the kiss, with the most genuine smile she had ever seen on the jester’s face, something inside of Mimi also broke.

“... that was something.”

“Not one of my proudest moments.”

“I mean, you practically said to my mother ‘Sorry, taken’ in the worst way possible.”

“Again. Not one of my proudest moments. And I wasn’t in full control of my actions. If I had been, I would’ve behaved differently. For one reason or another. But remaining on topic. You see why I’m making you read this, instead of telling you outright?”

“... no.”

“Aha. I shall explain, then. I want you to really know what happened. In every detail. Only then, I believe, you can judge my endeavour for a perfect world. Sorry, I meant why-”

“I know some big words. Uncle Blu likes to talk funny.”

“Ah. Aha. I’ll have to thank Blumiere the next time I see him. Maybe after murdering him. But let’s resume. I believe the next entry should be really interesting.”

The following day Dimentio’s conditions improved. Mimi tended to the magician almost mindlessly, her mind mocking her endlessly with the conversation between Dimentio and... well, she couldn’t really tell that she was the one the jester was speaking to, right?

After that Dimentio had drifted back to sleep, exhausted, and hadn’t awoken since. She guessed she should thank Grambi for that. She didn’t know how she would-

“M-Mimi?”

She perked up and turned to look at Dimentio, who had awoken right when she was in the process of changing the rag.

“Oh. You’re awake.”

Dimentio nodded, then his eyes widened in horror.

“The Chaos Heart! Where-”

“I have it. When the fusion collapsed, it stayed with me for some reason.”

“... then why did you take care of me? I-I mean-”

Mimi shrugged.

“I just did.”

Dimentio brought himself into an upright position.

“D-don’t downplay it like that. There are too few people that are truly capable of doing-”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Dimentio gave her a puzzled look.

“Mimikins, I see no reason to react like that. I was merely complimenting-”

“What are compliments worth? Pixl will always be better, after all.”

Dimentio looked like he wanted to say something, probably about Mimi’s newfound fondness of interrupting him, but he froze, his brain registering the name.

“P-p-pixl? Where did, how-”

“You mistook me for her while I was treating you.”

“Oh. I presume then that I talked about my feelings-”

“You kissed m- her.”

“Oh. I assure you that I won’t ever cause such a hindrance to you... since you seem so shocked about it.”

“It’s nothing. You... were kissing her, in a way. It was almost like I wasn’t there.”

He hesitated responding and a silence grew between them. Mimi turned her attention back to the rag, wringing it with more force than was needed.

“...yet there’s more to it.” he added quietly.

“No. No there isn’t. I... I just feel... I’m not even angry at you. Not even angry at her. She... just sounds so perfect... that I can’t quite compare.”

“And why woul-” he stopped and it looked as if a lightbulb lit on in Dimentio’s head, “... Mimi... I... had no idea you harboured such... feelings for me. Is... what I’m assuming true?”

Mimi clenched her teeth angrily, then nodded. Her head spun, she couldn’t breathe. What would he say? She didn’t know, did she want to know? Would he be kind? Would he mock her? Would he be angry? She didn’t... she couldn’t say she didn’t care.

“... I see.”

Dimentio took a deep breath.

“Pixl... what can I say about her? She was one of the only people I cared about. Probably the only one. She had been the first one in a long time to truly care about me. Without her I would’ve died of hunger, of sickness or of thirst. She had nothing to gain from helping me.”

He sighed.

“After she cured me, I told her that the offer I had made, her freedom, still stood. She chose to stay. I can’t tell why she stayed, not even now. I guess she saw herself in me... in some sort of way.”

He paused and thought for a moment.

“It was her that taught me most of what I know about magic. Even when I left her, I found my thoughts no more wandering to those dark memories who had imprisoned my mind for so long, but towards her.”

He looked at her, but Mimi kept her back turned to him, mindlessly wringing the rag.

“After my services as court jester were no longer necessary, in the evenings, we used to lie down on the castle’s roof and looked at the stars. There we would to talk about how the world should be. Back then my idea of a perfect world blossomed. It wouldn’t be until much later, though, that it found it’s primary reason to exist.”

The jester found himself whistling as he approached his door. ‘This was happening more and more often’ he thought with a small laugh. He surely hoped that the inhabitants of the castle didn’t notice his shift in moods!

He opened the door and the grin underneath his mask fell. Inside of his small room four people and a pixl stood. That was four more people that there were supposed to be. Two of them were courtiers, he recognized them, but had never bothered to get to know them. Another one was Blumiere, the prince. He looked clearly uncomfortable, fidgeting and evading the jester’s gaze with his eyes.

The last one was the king. In his right hand he held his ebony sceptre, the red gem on its top shining in the dim light. In his left hand he held the battered and bruised Pixl.

“My King. To what I owe this pleasure?”

“Silence, jester. Do you even have the slightest idea of what you’ve done?”

“Well, today I got up, I had breakfast-”

The king interrupted him, shooting a spell directly into the jester’s chest.

“Quit playing dumb! You know exactly what you did!” he threw Pixl roughly at the floor, “You have freed this beast!”

“Oh, that. Seriously, I don’t see anything wrong with that. I think it would be better if we simply talk about it.”

“Talk about it? TALK ABOUT IT?! Jester, do you have the slightest idea who this creature you have freed is?”

Pixl shoot the jester a desperate look, seemingly afraid of him discovering her real identity.

“She is-”

“The Pixl Queen. You wanted to say this, right?”

Everybody, both the members of the Tribe of Darkness and the Pixl Queen gave the jester a flabbergasted look.

“Your looks are quite enough of an answer, I’d say. Aha. Seriously, I don’t understand why you would be surprised. A pixl, wearing a crown and guarded even heavier than the Dark Prognosticus? It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”

“Then why?” the king growled, “Why would you let such a beast roam freely? You know what she is capable of!”

“Well, the reason she was so dangerous was her powerful army of pixls.” the jester widened his arms “I don’t see any of them. And I’d ask you to not call her that. She is, after all, a lady. I freed her, because I didn’t see any reason she should be trapped.”

“She has done unspeakable things! She has destroyed a civilization! She has enslaved countless!”

“Oh, right. I mean, how has she dared rebel against her enslavers and give them a taste of their own medicine! The nerve!” he replied.

The king snarled.

“How dare you! I gave you a home!”

“And this.” the jester said, tapping his mask, “Oh, and I could ever forget about that time when you left me to die when I was ill? The only reason I’m even alive at all is because of her!” the jester concluded, his words becoming more furious and filled with spite by the second.

“I... uh, well-” the king tried to justify himself.

“I mean!” the jester interrupted him, chuckling hysterically “Isn’t it funny? How a supposed beast has cared about me more, half her hider, half her enslaving creator, than anyone in this castle? More than my uncle, my supposed king, flesh of my flesh?”

“This is not the point!”

“Oh, this is much of the point! You tell me that the beast should be struck down? Wonderful! I’ll do it with no hesitation!”

With these words the jester teleported behind one of the courtiers and hit him in the back of his head with one of the magical attacks he had developed under Pixl’s tutelage, a purple and yellow electric orb, killing the man on the spot.

“Aha. Only three to go, at least here!”

The king spun to him and shot a red beam at the jester, who simply teleported out of the way.

“You madman! Are you demented?”

“I’d say not, my king!” the voice came from one of the corners, alongside an electric orb, that the monarch barely dodged.

Who didn’t dodge was Blumiere, who was sent back several meters. The king snarled in anger and threw himself at the jester, who simply teleported away. He reappeared in front of the other courtier.

“Sorry!” he told him “Family matter! Ciao!”

He snapped his fingers and the courtier was thrown against the ceiling, the gravity on him suddenly inverting, his neck snapping from the impact. He turned on his heels, finding the king trembling with rage, a red orb on the top of his sceptre.

“This ends now.” the king proclaimed as he shot the orb.

The jester shot back one of his own. The two met in the middle, yellow and purple clashing with red, both magician concentrating to try and overcome the other.

“Surrender now. You can’t possibly hope to best the king of the Tribe of Darkness in magic!”

It was true. Little by little, the jester’ spell was losing ground, but he still had an ace up his sleeve.

“Do you know that my magic is a combination? Half comes from the Tribe of Darkness, half from the Ancients! This means that all my spells must be made of two parts.” his grin widened under the mask, “That means they can always be separated.”

As he said that, his orb split into two smaller orbs, one yellow, one purple. They slammed into each side of the king’s orb, causing it to collapse and sending the king tumbling to the ground. Before he could do anything, the jester had already teleported on top of him and snapped his fingers, trapping the king into a transparent box.

“And now, ciao!” the jester said, preparing to snap his fingers.

A scream could be heard.

“Stop!”

The jester rotated his head to an unnatural angle, looking at the source of the voice. There stood Blumiere, on top of Pixl, a spell ready.

“Leave my father go, or I’ll kill her!”

The jester made a desperate movement towards the bested pixl, but in doing so his concentration slipped, allowing the king to break the magic box. Startled by the sound the jester turned, but it was too late. The king rammed the sceptre into the jester’s face, sending him tumbling to the ground, his mask landing next to him.

The jester tried to rise up, but at a movement of the king’s sceptre black tentacles rose from the ground and bound him.

“Thank you, my son.” the king addressed Blumiere, before turning to the jester, “Now what to do with you?”

The jester struggled against his bindings, before looking the king in the eye, his face bare for the first time in years and his hair wild, having lost the hat when the king had hit him. He wore a snarl on his face, all his earlier sarcasm and wit vanished.

“You surely are something. A real shame, I’ll have to say. You surely have quite the ability. Such a shame. You asked something before. Why did I left you to die, or something like that. I’ll tell you.

When Love, that of Light and Dark descend,

Shall die in tragedy, of fear begun

Only then shall appear the One who all worlds shall end,

The Bringer of Chaos, the Dark One

That is written in the Dark Prognosticus. Your foolish parents cursed all worlds with their foolish love! I have merely done what needed to be done. I have tried to purge you of your light, but it was all useless. I had hoped that death would help relieve you and all worlds of this fate, but the beast got in the way! You see what I need to do. She has to be killed.”

“N-no, please! She didn’t do anything wrong! Spare her!”

“Hm.” the king appeared to be considering this proposal, “And why would I do that?”

“I promise I will no longer talk to her! I-I won’t ever be the Dark One!”

“Easy enough to say. Prove it.”

“Y-you said that you couldn’t purge my light, why?”

“You still appear to be of Ancient blood. For all that you can be covered, you still show the light in you through your right eye.” the king appeared to have an idea, “Would you be willing to renounce that?”

“W-will Pixl survive?”

“I promise I won’t kill her.”

“Don’t do it!” Pixl squealed, “W-why would you do it? H-he will break the promise, please don’t do it!”

The king rolled his eyes.

“Please. The word of a king is never broken.”

The jester ignored the man’s comment and turned to Pixl.

“I... I don’t care. If there’s even the slightest chance for you to survive, I’m ready to pay whatever the price.”

“But why?”

“Because I love you. And I prefer losing my eye and never seeing you again than to know that you’ve died for me.”

Pixl’s eight eyes filled with tears. The jester, a melancholic smile plastered on his face, attempted to cheer her up.

“Don’t cry. This will be the last time we meet. I want you to smile, please.”

“T-there has to be another way...”

“There isn’t, I’m afraid. I too wish of one. But for your life, I shall do it.”

The king cleared his voice.

“Have you finished?”

The jester took one final look at his love, wishing to imprint her image into his retina, then, when the king cleared his voice a second time, he turned back to him.

“I’m ready.”

The king nodded solemnly and whipped out his sceptre. The red gem glowed as the king held it over the jester’s right eye. Then, a flash of energy, light, and hot pain. The jester wanted to scream, to plead for his uncle to stop, but he forced himself not to. For her... for her…

Then, it was over. It was weird, seeing from just one eye. Everything looking different, yet so familiar. The king gave him a look.

“You have honoured your part of the deal. I trust you, now. You will excuse me for not believing you before.”

“N-now honour your part, king.”

The king nodded.

“Of course. A king never goes back on his word. I won’t kill her.” he turned his back to the jester and spoke to Blumiere, “Son, kill her.”

“What?” both Blumiere and the jester screamed simultaneously.

“We can never be sure enough. I am thoroughly sorry, but you will see this is for the best.”

“B-but father I-”

“Weren’t you willing to do so before? Strike her down or I shall do the same to you and fetch another courtier to do your job.”

Blumiere looked at the jester desperately, then held up his own sceptre, his hand trembling. As he formed a spell at its top, the jester could have sworn reading the silent words ‘I am sorry’ on his mouth. But as Blumiere prepared to launch the spell on Pixl laying form, he hesitated for the slightest moment.

His father noticed and frowned, his control over the binding spell vanishing ever so slightly. The jester took this as an opportunity, his magic undid the binding spell in microscopic tendrils, freeing his hand and allowing his fingers to snap.

The spell shot from Blumiere’s sceptre and Dimentio only had a fraction of a second to decide, knowing that he couldn’t stop the spell by any magical means. He teleported in front of Pixl, hoping to at least defend her with his body. The last thing he felt before blacking out was the spell piercing his chest.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he woke up in a pool of his own blood. He rose up, tendrils of magic already patching up his wound. He looked around himself.

There was nobody around. They must had left him to die. Something caught his eye. There, on the ground, laid Pixl’s crown.

“... no...”

He knelt next to it, picking it up, cradling it.

“No, no, no, no.”

Tears filled his eyes. It was his fault! Emotions assaulted him. Anger, grief, sadness. Then it stopped.

A void filled his chest, his emotions killed, his mind… free.

No.

It wasn’t his fault. It was this world’s. The king’s words came to his mind. ‘The One who all worlds shall end’ and why not? Why not purge this world into fire? Why not create it anew? Make it perfect. Like he was. Like Pixl had been.

Something else caught his eye, his mask. He picked it up hesitantly and a memory came to him.

“So you like my mask? Why?”

“I like masks. They are like a second chance. You don’t choose how you’re born, you choose who you can be, what mask you can wear.”

A new face. A new him.

He fastened the strings that held the mask to his face and looked at himself in the room’s mirror. The face on the mask looked at him back. One golden and one grey, dead eye, accompanied by an eternal, unfeeling smile.

Yes, that’s who he wanted to be. Confident. Superior. Cold. Never, never he could get hurt again. Never could the ones who he loved be hurt again. So, he would never love. Not until the world was perfect. Not until someone like her would appear again. No one in this imperfect world could measure up to her.

His hat flew on top of him, his jester clothes rearranged. It was time for the past to die. And he would be the one to kill it. He already knew where to start.

He teleported, arriving above a human village. The village of the ones that had started all, now rising into his old home’s ruins. When he arrived, a mage attacked him. Without sparing him so much of a glance, he sent a magical orb at him, that left the old man dying and that spurred all the other villagers to run for safety.

“Who...” asked the mage, spitting blood, “Who are you?”

The jester looked at him.

‘You madman! Are you demented?’

He immediately knew his name.

“I am the master of dimensions!”

Demented? Insane? It was this world that was insane.

“The pleaser of crowds!”

But in an insane world, to be insane meant to be sane.

“I am...”

So, yes. Yes he was.

“Dimentio!” he chuckled darkly, several of his clones appearing to hunt down the villagers, “Remember the name well.”

“It was that night that Dimentio was born.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you don’t want love? Or that Pixl is dead and I shouldn’t care about her?”

Dimentio took Mimi’s hands into his.

“Mimi dearest. Yes, Pixl is dead. Yes, I promised myself I wouldn’t love someone that couldn’t measure up with her.”

Mimi had feared those words. She lowered her gaze. She was so stupid, so stupid! Then, she felt one of Dimentio’s hands under her chin, the other still clutching her hands, making her look at him.

“For the longest time… I never even considered that someone could be like her. I never did entertain that possibility. Just now I ask myself why did I do that. Maybe because, deep down, I hoped that she would come back. If she did… if I found someone else… what would I do? It was only after I saw her in you that I realised she is not coming back. She is gone. She died. She’s not coming back. I scoured the afterlife for her. Unsuccessfully. Pixls… they work in a different way. Maybe… maybe it’s time to go on. Yes. To… search for someone that is as perfect as her. Someone who shares the desire for a perfect world. Someone who worries about others and who helps them for no reason.”

Mimi’s heart began to beat absurdly fast.

“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”

And gently, slowly, Dimentio’s lips approached her, finally, at the end, touching hers, pressing themselves against them in a passionate kiss. A kiss that was so similar to the one Dimentio had given her before, but felt radically different.

As Dimentio broke the kiss, he looked her in the eye. Mimi knew what was coming, yet waited in anguish for every fraction of a second it took.

“I love you, Mimi.”

And Mimi instantly knew why that kiss, those words felt so different. They were meant for her.


	23. Chapter 23: ΓW⅃

Chapter 23: ΓW⅃

The heroes proceeded into Wario’s vault. They had passed some patrols and traps and were currently walking into an enormous, dark room.

“Are you sure this is where Nastasia went?” Blumiere asked.

“Well, it’s not like the doors opened themselves.” Mario replied.

“True, but we’re not the only ones trying to get into Castle Dimentio.”

Mario stopped and turned to Blumiere.

“You think Mimi’s here?”

Blumiere nodded.

“And I fear for her. Nastasia... she is somewhat weird.”

“How s-”

“Wahaha! Heroes!” Wario’s voice thundered through the room.

The lights came to life, revealing a room that was even bigger than what the heroes were expecting. The walls were made of white marble, its countless golden decorations glimmering faintly. The room itself was rectangular, the heroes stood at one end, Wario at the other and halfway through it two dark corridors fanned out to both the left and the right. Wario smirked, matching the imposing steel door that shared the likeness of his face.

“Bwahaha! You think you can face us alone?”

“Oh, but I’m not alone. No, not alone.”

“Have you checked your watch, heroes?” a voice came from the left corridor, “I believe it’s about...”

Waluigi stepped into the light, brandishing his racket and pointing it at the heroes.

“WALUIGI TIME! WAHAHA!”

“Oh, that must suck for you.” another voice mused, from the other alley, “You know, this year is my lucky year! But don’t worry, it wouldn’t have changed even if you waited for the next. Why?”

Mr L stepped into the room, striking a pose.

“BECAUSE THE YEAR OF MR L NEVER ENDS! WAHAHA!”

Immediately Wario and Waluigi looked at Mr L, completely disregarding the heroes. Mr L, noticing this, snapped at them.

“What? Too intimidated by my entrance?”

Waluigi was the first to speak.

“Wah-t was that?”

“It was my entrance! Has your brain shrunk? I didn’t think that was possible, given its diminutive size!”

“Your laugh, new guy!” Wario barked.

“What do you mean?”

“You used the W-word!” Wario continued, “It’s kind of our thing, you know.”

“Wah-ll, Wario, he’s kinda on our team now.”

Wario put a hand on his chin, as if he was thinking.

“Wah! Waluigi, come here.”

The two started whispering to each other, leaving a rather confused group of heroes to share awkward stares with each other and Mr L, seasoned with Wario’s and Waluigi’s... wah-ness to roll their eyes. Finally, the two villains seemed to have reached a deal. Waluigi cleared his voice.

“Wah’ll put you on probation. You can use 3 Wahs and 1 Wahaha a day. Then wah’ll see.”

“And wah related puns are counted, punk!” Wario interfjected.

“Wah, like he said.”

Mr L sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Fine! Can we go on?”

“Wah-ne thing first.” Waluigi said, “Come here!”

Mr L approached the duo, who pulled him into a group pose as Waluigi pulled out an old looking camera.

“Say ‘Wah’ for the camer-Wah!”

The three made their worst villain expressions and the camera clicked. Waluigi went to extract the photography eagerly.

“Wah! This goes straight into the memory album!”

Blumiere cleared his voice.

“Could we continue, please?”

Waluigi looked at him.

“Wah! I’m so sorry! I get emotional, at times! L’s first wah!”

“No, no, I... I understand that. I have led my villainous family-like group before. If you need some more time...”

“Wah, thank you! We... actually hadn’t thought of a battle plan. Do we have time to do that?”

Wario looked at his watch.

“I have to go rob a bank at six, but we have plenty of time before that. Tactical group meeting!”

The three grouped in a circle, discussing a plan.

“Okay, okay.” Wario started, “I suggest we each pick some of them. It will be easier!”

“Dibs on the count” Mr L said, “And Mario!”

“Mario is MY rival! But you can take the count and his girlfriend, I have no beef with them and neither does Waluigi.”

“Wah” Walugi assented, “The Blue guy seems kinda nice, too. You can have him.”

Mr L nodded.

“That’s okay. I guess you can have Mario’s girlfriend, to be even.”

“Wah!” Waluigi concluded, “That means I get...”

He counted on his fingers, then took a notebook out of his pocket and crossed out the heroes that were already claimed.

“Wah! Wah-y do I have to take Bowser and the big Scottish guy?”

“Well, you didn’t have any preferences.” Mr L answered, “But if it makes you happy I’ll give you dibs on fighting Luigi if the heroes rescue him.”

“And I’ll give you 100 Wah-dollars.”[1] 

“150.”

“Really?”

“Wah!”

“Fine! You are getting better at this!” Wario handed Waluigi a handful of uneven pieces of paper with poorly drawn numbers and Wario’s face on it.

“And a lollipop.”

“No, not that.”

“I. Wah-nt. A. Lollipop.”

“You are seriously getting too many of those.”

“As much as I hate to agree with Mr Wahsallthetime number 2 here, you have a serious problem.”

“Number 2? I’m the original one!”

“I met Waluigi first, so I called him that first.”

“I WAH-NT MY LOLLIPOP AND I WAH-NT IT NOW!”

“Wah, fine!” Wario snarled as he handed Waluigi the purple candy, “But you better wash your teeth!”

Sighing, Wario turned to the heroes only to find them gone. He spun 180 degrees on himself, realising the vault’s door was open, the heroes coming out of it with bags of money on their back.

“Wah! They’re robbing me! I’m supposed to do that! To them!”

Pulling out an oversized golden axe, he pointed at the heroes.

“Go get them!”

“Split!” Mario called out to the others.

Blumiere darted into the left hallway, while O’Chunks and Bowser chose the right. Mario and Peach ducked underneath Wario’s blows and left through the way they came in. Wario, Waluigi and Mr L each went to chase their target.

“C’mon, Peach, we can do this!” Mario encouraged Peach as they ran through the hallways of Wario’s vault.

Peach, huffing and puffing under the weight of the bag of gold.

“Just... need... two... minutes...”

Mario turned to Peach.

“We need to hurry and get out! Wario’s on our tail!”

“I don’t see the problem with that! He’s slow! He’s fat and his legs are short!”

“While normally I would agree with you, he’s... kind of different when you try to steal his gold. He’s-”

Peach assumed a horrified expression and Mario heard a whisper.

“Right behind you.”

Mario jumped right in time to avoid the axe’s slash, but was thrown to the wall by the following punch.

“Nobody steals from me! Wah!” Wario grunted, striking his axe towards Mario, who rolled sideways.

The heroes continued their flight. They ran and, once they reached a door, they turned sharply and locked the door. There, they waited. Footsteps were to be heard on the other side, they were getting closer and closer, finally arriving in front of the door. The door handle was shook a couple of times, then it stopped. Silence.

“Maybe he’s-” Mario whispered.

An axe broke through the door, causing Mario to yelp in surprise. The axe hit three more times, ripping a hole into the door and Wario’s eye appeared.

“Here comes Johnn- Ow!”

Peach punched him in the eye and Mario charged at the door, sending his greedy, fat copycat tumbling to the ground. Mario and Peach continued to run.

“Take this!” Waluigi stomped on O’Chunks head, flew towards Bowser and swung the racket at his face ,“Wah!”

He landed on the ground.

“Wahahaha!” he boasted, “You two are so big and slow! Wah-y didn’t I want to fight you again?”

Waluigi was suddenly thrown into a wall as Bowser punched him.

“Wah! Owowow! That’s why!”

“‘e’s really annoying!”

“Bwahaha! That’s true! Let’s end this here!”

Waluigi picked himself up.

“Wah-ll, I see I’ll have to take matters into my own, muscly hands!”

“Muscly? Ye’re as t’in as a toot’pick!”

Waluigi smiled.

“Wah-‘ll see about that. You thought you could win easily against poor, wimpy Waluigi? Too bad!”

He flexed, his telepathic power being converted into raw muscles, they expanded and flexed, ripping his shirt and reduced it to shreds. He threw off his cap, revealing long, purple, flowing hair and struck several poses, flexing his new muscles.

“Muscular Waluigi Time!”

The two heroes were taken aback by Waluigi’s sudden transformation, so much so the purple villain was able to jump at Bowser and punch him straight in the face, sending him several meters back and causing blood to gush from his nose.

“Wahaha! Thanks to my new powers I’m invincible!”

“Ye forgot to let us introduce! T’is is Fist Jr!” O’Chunks said as he delivered a punch at Waluigi’s shoulder, expending his arm unnaturally, “An’ ‘is wee pal, Slappie!”

With this O’Chunks punched Waluigi’s chest, shattering several ribs and sending him flying into the next wall, yet Waluigi continued grinning madly as blood dripped from his mouth.

“Big lad!”

O’Chunks went to check on Bowser, who got up and massaged his head.

“What- what happened?”

“T’e wee lad got chunked up and punc’ed yer lights out! I gave him a good chunking and ‘e won’t be a problem.”

“Wahahaha!” the familiar laugh echoed behind them, “And wah-t makes you think that?”

Both O’Chunks and Bowser turned around and their jaws nearly fell when they saw Waluigi. His chest had still showcased the mark of O’Chunks’ punch, his ribs broken and caved in, some pieces poking through the flesh, his shoulder was a mangled mess. In plain view, both chest and shoulder started fixing themselves, Waluigi’s body restoring itself in mere seconds.

Bowser shot forward and Waluigi did nothing to stop him. The king of the Koopas struck with his sharp claws, severing Waluigi’s left arm. The purple villain smiled even more and sent a punch of his own against Bowser, this time aiming for his stomach and sending the Koopa straight into O’Chunks, who got hit by the pointy shell.

Waluigi proceeded to pick up his arm and held it to his shoulder, the ends reattaching in mere seconds.

“How’s that possible?” Bowser growled.

“Wahahahaha! You utter fools! Right now, thanks to all the telepathic might that I transformed into raw muscle power, I’m the Ultimate Life Form! The very peak of physical ability! A god! I can’t be killed, I can’t be harmed! So, go, give me your worst!”

Bowser shot O’Chunks a look.

“We might need to use that move we’ve been practising.”

“Been t’inking t’e same, big lad.”

O’Chunks picked up Bowser and jumped into the air. Bowser spat fire, making the two start to spin in the air, their velocity increasing exponentially. Waluigi simply watched them in disinterest, his arms crossed, the arrogance written on his face. O’Chunks grabbed Bowser’s legs and threw the oversized turtle at Waluigi.

“Muscle!” he cried.

Bowser coated himself in fire and retreated into his shell, turning into a flaming meteor of death.

“Fire!”

Waluigi didn’t even move.

“Power!”

Bowser collided with him, the resulting explosion sending Bowser back towards O’Chunks who caught him.

“Do ye t’ink ‘e survived?”

“Bwahaha! No one could survive _that_. We’re too-”

Something stepped out of the smoke.

“Strong?”

It was without a doubt Waluigi’s form, however mangled. All of his skin was burned and his limbs were destroyed. His moustache was on fire, one was closed eye suspiciously and several of his teeth were missing, but he was _smiling like the devil._

“I-it’s a monster! Do ye have any idea ‘ow to defeat ‘im, Bowie?!”

Bowser looked hesitant for a second, then assumed a serious expression.

”Yeah, I do.”

“Really? Ye do?”

“Bwahah! Yeah, I have one last card up my... I don’t actually have sleeves, but you get the point.”

“One last card? W-w’at is it?”

“I saved this one for last. Look at his legs. They were blown to smithereens and haven’t healed yet, because he focused on his arms. That’s our ticket.”

“And your last card?”

“Bwahaha! I’ll use my own legs!” Bowser said, slapping his legs for emphasis.

“Yer legs? ‘ow?”

Bowser turned on himself and started running.

“To bail!”

“I thought floating would make you faster, Bleck.”

Blumiere raised his sceptre just in time to block the lightning bolt.

“Luigi” he growled.

Mr L landed from his hiding spot on the ceiling.

“You should know that’s not my name, Bleck.”

“And Bleck isn’t mine.” Blumiere shot Timpani a look and tossed the gold to her, “You go. This... I believe it’s personal.”

“You believe well.”

“Blumiere...”

“Go. I won’t lose.”

Timpani hesitated, then nodded and went on.

“You said that Bleck wasn’t your name. That’s a lie. You chose that name. I didn’t choose to be Mr L and neither did Luigi.”

“Luigi, please listen. I don’t know what Dimentio has done to you, but we can fix it!”

Mr L snarled, charging green electricity in his fists.

“How? Having Nastasia hypnotise me into being Luigi? Killing me again?”

He attacked Blumiere, his first fist being blocked by Blumiere’s staff, but the second hit the man in the stomach, burning him with electricity.

“I am not Luigi. That lowlife is still in Dimentio’s dungeon.”

Bleck recovered quickly from Mr L’s attack and swung his staff at the mechanic, hitting him on the shoulder. Mr L didn’t even flinch.

“What?”

Mr L laughed darkly.

“What? You think that your puny attacks can hurt me? Maybe once. But what I’ve faced in the Underwhere... this is nothing compared to it.”

Blumiere rolled backwards and shot a blast at the mechanic, that was sent back.

“The Underwhere? Mario rescued you from there!”

Mr L gave him a dark glare, then chuckled.

“But of course you wouldn’t know what really happened. You’re such a fool, I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

He touched something on his watch.

“L ExoskeLeton, battle mode!”

Mr L’s body was quickly covered by sleek, metallic, black and green plaques. Blumiere was stunned, but managed to dodge Mr L’s next strike.

“You know,” the mechanic snarled, “Nastasia’s hypnosis is really fascinating!”

He shot a missile from his shoulder, barely missing Bleck.

“When she created me, she basically created a new identity and put Luigi in the back of his head! So, when I died, two souls were sent to the Underwhere. I was left there, while Luigi was rescued. Six years. I spent six years in that hellhole!”

Blumiere was taken aback by this revelation and did not manage to dodge L’s punch.

“I-I did not know that!”

“But you never bothered to check! Never thought that I may be there?”

A swift punch to the face let Blumiere greet the ground.

“You would have come back for Mimi! For O’Chunks! Even for Dimentio, maybe! But not for me. And you know why?! Because I was nothing more than a tool! A useful, loyal, little soldier!”

“Mr L...”

Mr L kicked Blumiere into his mouth, sending him tumbling backwards, then shook his head and chuckled sadly.

“Y-you know the funny thing? I-if you came back for me, I would have helped you! I would have been the happiest to take Dimentio down! But he, of all people, was the only one that gave a fuck!”

Blumiere forced himself to stand up, but everything ached.

“Whatever he promised you, whatever perfect world he’s pictured to you, he’s lying! You, of all-”

“Please, Blumiere. I know that he’s gonna kill me as soon as he has dealt with you and gotten Mimi. I’ve had the displeasure of working with him.”

“Then why? Why would you want to work for him if he plans to kill you?”

Angry tears filled Mr L’s eyes.

“Why would I care if I live or I die? I-I have nothing to live for!” he said, his voice breaking by quiet sobs, “I have no one! You created Mr L for your objectives and just for that! I have no family, no friends! The perfect tool to destroy all worlds!”

Mr L smiled a sad smile and whispered.

“Why would I care about anything else?”

“What about the other two?! You seem to care about them”

Mr L hesitated for a second.

“...they are of no importance. I-I merely need them to pursue my objective. The one you created me for.”

“P-please L, you don’t have to do this...”

“You’re right, I don’t.” L’s whole form powered with lightning, “I want to. I never asked to be created, you know? You created me like this. With no purpose other than its own destruction. You said ‘whatever perfect world Dimentio has offered you’. He didn’t do anything of the sorts. The only thing he offered was vengeance on you. I’ll have to give him this, he knows me well.”

Blumiere sighed and got into a battle stance.

“I guess this is the only way, then.”

“It is. Have at you!” Mr L sprinted towards his old employer, the rocket boosters adding power to his already powerful jump.

Blumiere quickly conjured a spell that increased his physical strength, but was still sent backwards by Mr L’s assault, crashing through several walls until Mr L slammed him straight into the ground outside. They found themselves outside the vault. Blumiere managed to launch a spell, forcing Mr L to fall back.

In that moment, Mario, Peach and Timpani ran out of the front gates, an axe wielding Wario chasing after them. As if choreographed, another wall collapsed and out of it Bowser and O’Chunks came running, followed by what looked like a very muscular Waluigi.

“I told ye, Bowie! Our legs ‘re short! ‘is are long.”

“Oh, shut up! Like you had a better plan!”

“Waluigi L!” Wario shouted, “Let’s end it here! Ultimate Wahmbo Combo!”

Wario raised both his hands and several spheres of molten gold emerged from the sea of lava. Mr L smirked and pointed his left index finger at the sky, a green lighting shot from the sky, striking the Green Thunder. Powerful tendrils of electricity arched from Mr L, seemingly untouched and unbothered by it all, and charged up Wario’s projectiles.

Waluigi’s form returned to normal and he snapped his fingers on both his hands, two rings of tennis rackets forming at his sides. They started spinning when Waluigi made finger guns and pointed at the heroes, who only had a second to prepare themselves before the trio screamed

“ΓW⅃ GATLING GUN!”

Dozens of molten gold, lightning charged bullets targeted the heroes relentlessly. There was no time to hatch a plan. It was time to act. And the act in question was to run[2] . The heroes ran around, trying desperately not to be hit. Mario finally managed to hide behind a rock. This... was not going well. He needed to take one of them out!

"Bowser" he screamed.

“What?!”

“Can you throw me?”

“Well, you wouldn’t even need to ask, normally, but - ow that was close! - a bit occupied right now!”

"Can you throw me at Waluigi?!"

Bowser’s face lit up in realisation. 

“Bwahaha! I get to do that to you and look good in the eyes of the princ- save the day? Of course!”

Mario ran towards his ancient foe, his instinct of jumping over him to destroy the bridge almost kicking in, abandoning himself instead to Bowser’s hand. He hoped that he went eas-

His thoughts were interrupted as a punch rated 10 on the Richter scale connected to his face and sent him flying at Mach 4 towards the lanky, purple menace. Mario had barely the time to unite his legs before he fly-kicked Waluigi on the nose.

Straight into the sea of lava.

Wario’s spun around and rushed towards the edge of the lava, realising when he arrived that there was no way for him to go in. Mr L’s head snapped between the heroes and Waluigi. They were getting away! But if he didn’t do something... why did he care? Why?

Mr L cursed under his breath and tapped his right foot under the ground, activating his jet boots and rocketing towards the sea of lava, rescuing Waluigi with his grapple gun. As he took Waluigi’s charred form into his arms, the heroes finally teleported away, but Mr L’s mind barely registered it.

His mind, from when he first saw Waluigi’s conditions from when he landed on the ground and put Waluigi into Wario’s arms, could only conjure up one thought. What had he done?

I don‘t know who‘s talking from here on

Don‘t use the i-perspective as the narrator. Use a passive form of a verb instead


	24. Chapter 24: Deception

Chapter 24: Deception

Mimi knew she should be happy. Or at least partially so. She was still being hunted down by her friends and the heroes, and had to hide, so that was a negative to her situation, but at least Dimentio was there.

The charming jester returned her feelings and all had resolved in what sounded like the happy ending to a fairytale... Except for the part that they were still villains on the run, but that was only a minor detail. So, why wasn’t she happy?

It was all perfect. Dimentio was kind, kinder than he has ever been, giving her kisses at random, every time with that smile, so different than what she was used to, much warmer, much more... genuine. Like he wasn’t pretending.

But at the back of her head there was this feeling that gnawed at her mind, a feeling that, regardless of how much she tried to identify, she failed to. It wasn’t jealousy, Dimentio had made it clear to her that he loved her and, while he still loved his Pixl, he was ready to move on, having finally found ‘a perfect being’, one worthy of being loved. She still blushed a bit when he called her that and she was quite sure that he did it just to fluster her. Some things never changed, she supposed.

It wasn’t some sliver of love for someone else. She had always tried to find someone that ‘fit’ her, since she woke up at the edge of a city, with no memory of anything, except a single sliver of a conversation.

‘- or short, Mimi’

She had always assumed that was her name or at least an abbreviation, but she was getting off track. What counted was that none of her boyfriends could ever compare to Dimentio. Many of them were jerks, but even the nice ones treated her like Dimentio did. And not one of them gave her that weird sensation of joy and belonging that she got when she was around him. Not even the count, back when it was all simpler and she didn’t know of his true motives.

So, what was it? She didn’t know. Or she didn’t want to know. All she knew was that she wanted to get rid of that sensation, quickly. It was like something sharp was stabbing her in the thigh-

Something was stabbing her in her thigh. She inspected her pocket for what the object might be. A seed. The seed. In all that commotion she had forgot to ask Dimentio about it.

Well, it wasn’t all that important. She just wanted to know why that seed had come with them. Maybe it was important? It could be related in some way to the Chaos Heart and the reason it hadn’t worked back at the castle. Dimentio’s powers had somehow come back, but they still had to uncover what happened in case it happened again. Another worrying thing was that for all that Mimi tried, she couldn’t seem to make the void start its destruction again.

“Greetings, Mimikins!” Dimentio teleported right next to her, “I have returned! It seems like the heroes are on the hunt for us, from what I managed to ear!”

Then he noticed Mimi’s expression.

“Is something troubling you, dearest?”

“Uhm, it’s nothing.”

Dimentio tilts his head a little to the side.

“You sure?”

“Well, there is something. Do you know what this is?” she asked, showing him the seed laying in the palm of her hand.

Dimentio’s smile got the closest to dropping Mimi had ever seen, the jester’s expression betraying surprise.

“Ahaha” he laughed awkwardly, “W-why would I-I know something like th-that? I k-know my fair deal of things, b-but I d-don’t fashion myself a botanicist, af-after all!”

Mimi frowned. What was Dimentio hiding from her?

“N-now, Mimikins, I want to talk about what to-”

“You are lying.”

“Ahaha. W-what? I would never.”

“Tell me right now what it is.”

That feeling was stronger than ever now.

“M-mimikins, dearest, my little perfect being, can we talk about this later? Maybe by then we’ll be all calmer and we’ll-”

“Right. Now.” Mimi ordered, her tone ice cold.

“Mimi...”

“What. Is. This.”

Dimentio looked to the ground, in silence, for some seconds, then hesitantly spoke up, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“It’s a... Floro Sprout seed.”

Mimi remained silent and Dimentio explained.

“It’s a particular seed, that has... particular properties when planted in someone’s brain.”

Mimi’s heart stopped beating for a second. No... She almost couldn’t bring herself to speak, too afraid to break what she thought was reality, but after a struggle with herself, she managed to whisper two words, just two words, hoping with all her might that the answer wasn’t what she thought she would be.

“... what... properties?”

Dimentio looked pleadingly at her, but in the end, he spoke, his voice wavering.

“Mind control. The Floro Sprout makes the person it’s implanted in completely obedient to its master’s wishes.”

Mimi already knew what the jester was going to say, his confirmation was only a formality, but the words hit like a ton of brick nonetheless.

“No...” she whispered, tears in her eyes.

“B-but Mimikins, I’ve never used it! Not on you! Never on you!”

“... you did use it on me.”

Dimentio looked taken aback for a moment, assuming the expression of a kicked puppy and Mimi had to silence that treacherous part of her that still trusted him.

“Mimi... I...”

“Why?”

“I... feared you wouldn’t trust me. I didn’t know that-”

“And why would you care?!”

“The prophecy. The one you corrected. It talked of a woman in green as the ideal host of the Chaos Heart _._

_Many to wield it will try_

_Only the woman in green and that who she holds with her_

_Won’t have their efforts awry_

_This is how it will be, how it is, how it were_

I thought you were the woman in green and you were! Whatever you did back there, it wor-”

“So I was just a tool?”

“W-what?”

“All that friendliness, all our outings, all of your kindness. Was that just so you could use me?”

“Mimikins- I- You-”

Dimentio was clearly gasping at straws, but just a glance into what he probably hoped were kind, understanding eyes revealed themselves to be cold and as hard as steel. They squeezed an answer out of him, barely audible and full of what sounded like shame and regret.

“Y-yes.”

Mimi’s heart cracked. He was just using her, but he loved her! He had said so-

Wasn’t that a bit too quick? It felt like someone clicked into Mimi’s head, that feeling finally arriving at the forefront of her mind. Her heart finally broke.

“... were your feelings for me staged too?”

Dimentio gave her a desperate look, his smile long gone from his face.

“Mimikins-”

“Don’t you ever call me like that! Ever again!” Mimi snarled, her heartbreak translating into anger, tears of sadness and rage mixing themselves in her eyes and flowing down her cheeks.

“Mimi, I-”

“You must think you are real smart! Or that I’m really dumb!”

“Mimi, I would never think or-”

“Oh, yes, maybe I am! You deliver a sob story and tell me that ‘I am perfect’ and that you love me, just like that and I actually believe that! I can’t believe that I actually fell for that!”

What looked like a tear flowed down the edge of Dimentio’s mask, the rest of its kind probably hidden behind the mask.

“Mimi, I-”

Dimentio threw himself on her, making them both roll down the room.

What?!

Her form began to glow, as well as Dimentio’s.

That bastard! That- that- he tried to take the Chaos Heart! She was so stupid! She should have killed him on the spot!

Once again, all went dark.

When the heroes reappeared into their base, they found Nastasia. She was sitting on a chair, something in her lap. Blumiere was the first to notice her.

“Nastasia?”

“Blumiere. I-”

“Where have you gone?!” Blumiere snarled, “What happened?”

Nastasia got up and went towards Blumiere, handing him something. He examinated, it seemed to be an amulet, a sphere with a mask very similar to Dimentio’s in its centre, but it was smashed into several pieces.

“That was the amulet that blocked travel to Castle Dimentio. The ally I have mentioned before informed me that it was in Wario’s vault. I anticipated the presence of further resistance, so I sneaked in, using you as a diversion.”

Blumiere scoffed.

“Sure. And that’s exactly why you’ve broken it, right?”

“I-I don’t know what you mean.”

“How’s Mimi?”

“W-what?”

“You really think I’m that dumb? I’ve got fooled once by Dimentio, but I’m not stupid. The fact that the barrier is down now means that Mimi is able to get to Dimentio.”

“I-I d-did not think of that.”

“Sure, sure. Nastasia, I-”

“Blumiere.” Mario interrupted him, “Stop accusing Nastasia. She probably just didn’t think of that.”

Nastasia’s gaze went to the ground.

“I-I’m sorry Blumiere. I-I know that I screwed up. Again. I... am so sorry...” she said.

Blumiere didn’t look convinced, but sighed.

“Don’t beat yourself up. We all make mistakes.”

“Good.” Mario nodded, “We don’t need a fight. Now we have to speed things up a little, but that’s no problem. We have what we’ve been searching for all these years and-”

“Uhm, Mario?”

“What, Bowser?”

“The coins aren’t merging.”

When Mimi’s sight returned to her, they were once again fused. She tried to struggle, to wrestle the Chaos Heart from Dimentio’s control, but to no avail. Why had he kept her? Because of the prophecy?

She screamed, insulting Dimentio, insulting Pixl, insulting his parents, wishing for his death, but no response. She tried to see, to at least be conscious of what was happening and, to her surprise, she felt no resistance. Their form had no difference from last time’s one’s. In front of them, stood the heroes alongside what remained of Count Bleck’s minions, a set of pure hearts hovering over Mario.

“What do you search here, heroes? Do you wish to stop me?” Dimentio thundered, “Well, all you’ll find is death! Ahahaha!”

Bleck snarled.

“Surrender now, Dimentio! You have no chance against the Pure Hearts!”

“Ahaha! No, thank you! I’ve worked far too much to get to where I am now! And, with the perfect host for the Chaos Heart by my side, I’ll fear nothing from you!”

“We know. I’ve already found out about your modifications to the Dark Prognosticus”

“Ah! So now you know why I am invincible! Untouchable!”

The heroes stood back a little. The question on their mind was readable on their face.

“Bwahaha! That did a lot of good last time!”

“That’s only because- uhm, why should I tell you? No, I’ll let you die while you question the motive of my victory! Ahaha! Again, for dramatic effect! Ahahaha!”

Realisation came to Mimi just as it came to Count Bleck.

“You don’t know.” the ex-villain said, “He’s bluffing!”

Mario nodded to his new ally and shot the Pure Hearts towards the massive monster.

“Stop!” Ordered Dimentio, just before the Pure Hearts hit them, but it was all for nothing.

As soon as the Pure Hearts’ power shone on them, Mimi felt an unbearable pain in all of her being. She felt the Chaos Heart disappearing. The fusion collapsed and Mimi could see Dimentio landing roughly on the ground, motionless. Was it... this easy? She didn’t feel all that good, but forced herself to stand up.

“Mimi? Are you okay? Please, stop right there!” Nastasia asked.

Before she could even attempt to respond, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention

Dimentio began to rise up. Of course, things couldn’t be that simple.

“Vhy haff you called me here?” Antasma asked, standing in Fawful’s throne room.

“To have the answering to a certain problem.” the bean answered.

“I’m not quite sure if I can help vith your problem, vhatever it is. I may not haff the competence.”

Fawful grinned.

“Oh, but I have the sureness you have the knowledge on...”

He whipped out a remote, clicked a button and a pillar emerged from the ground, on the top rested a black gem.

“The Dark Stone!” Anstasma gasped, “You haff gained it back from the heroes! How did you do that?”

“It had the easiness, because the heroes never had the stealing of it!”

Antasma spun to Fawful.

“You vhat?!”

“I had the lying to you and the stealing of the Stone of Darkness.”

“You... You... nov Dimentio vill have your head! Ve could haff easily taken the holder of the Pure Hearts!”

“And whying would we have the doing of that? We could have the overthrowing of Dimentio!”

“Treason! You talk of treason! You know vhat I think of that!”

“And that has the being of the exact reason I called you!”

Antasma looked at Fawful, perplexed.

“You vanted to report your treason? That is smart. Maybe Lord Dimentio vill haff mercy on you.”

“No, not that. Fawful has the sureness of his success, if you have the joining of him!”

“Haff you hit your head somevhere? I voved to never betray!”

“What ifing Dimentio had the betraying?”

“Vhat do you mean?”

Fawful grinned ever wider and hit another button on his remote, a holographic projector popping up from the ceiling. Two people appeared. One was Dimentio, without a doubt, the other... was that Mimi’s daughter? Dimentio menaced to kill her in the nightmare Antasma had spied. They appeared to be talking.

“Aha ha. Mercy. I simply need those villains. Like I needed Count Bleck.”

_“W-what?”_

_“When your mother is returned to me, I will destroy all worlds and make my perfect world. I promised my underlings a world for each one of them. That, they will have. A minuscule, dark prison of a world, but a world.”_

_“That’s not okay!”_

_“Why? They are evil. As such they must pay. They pursue power for power itself. I do it for a noble cause. They have no place in my perfect world.”_

Antasma trembled with rage.

“Vho does that little jester think himself to be? To betray me?”

“This is the whying I had the planning of his overthrowing. I have the needing of the Stone of Darkness to have the powering up of my weapon of ultimateness.”

“I’m in! Then ve vill split all vorlds, right?”

Fawful smiled.

“But sureing! We’ll have the splitting up of the worlds like of a bag of chips.”

Poor fool, Fawful thought. He always had the stealing of all the chips!

“Aha ha ha. You still think you can reason with Mimi, don’t you?”

Mimi was about to speak up, when she realised that she couldn’t make a sound. Nastasia glared at him.

“What have you done?”

“Aha ha ha. Isn’t it obvious, you simpletons? Oh, sorry, I see there’s O’Chunks and the count there. It seems I’ll have to explain slowly and using simple words.”

Dimentio gestured to Mimi.

“She has always been under the influence of the Floro Sprout! She is my loyal servant! Aha ha ha! Again, for dramatic effect.”

What? Mimi couldn’t help but be baffled. What was Dimentio saying? Was that true? She knew it wasn’t.

“You madman!” Count Bleck growled, “You have truly gone too far! Forcing Mimi to do that! And what else your sick mind may have concocted!”

“Aha ha, count. That goes beyond your imagination. She is quite attractive, after all.”

Nastasia gritted her teeth while Bleck hissed.

“You truly are the lowest scum in all worlds.”

Now Mimi was more confused. She was sure Dimentio didn’t do anything of the sort! What was he saying? Was this a trick to get the heroes to lower their guards?

“Now, it’s not the time for formalities. Mimi, come here.”

Mimi heard her body speak with her voice. Was Dimentio manipulating her? Was the story of the Floro Sprout true?

“No.” her body spoke.

“What?!” Dimentio spat, then his eyes darted to something on the ground.

The Floro Sprout seed.

“No...” whispered Dimentio, “That’s impossible!”

Mimi realised what he was doing. It was... no, she had to be wrong... it didn’t make sense! Dimentio turned at the heroes.

“Heroes! We can talk about this!”

Mario stepped forward.

“O’Chunks! Nastasia! Please help me!”

Mario got closer.

“C-count? You wouldn’t leave the blood of your blood die, wouldn’t you?”

Mario was standing right in front of Dimentio.

“M-Mario, we can talk about this!”

Mario looked Dimentio dead in the eye.

“I’ll reply in Italian, since you seem to like it. No. Arrivederci.”

He swung his hammer sending Dimentio flying, the jester’s form hitting the ground with a sickening crunch and stayed motionless, his head lying in an unnatural position.

“Is...” asked Peach, “Is he dead?”

Luigi hesitated for a second, then spoke up.

“I’ll go check.”

The man in green ran to Dimentio side and examinated him for some seconds, then turned to his brother.

“It’s over.”

Nastasia ran to Mimi and hugged her, it being uncharacteristic for the usually contained woman, but Mimi didn’t hear any of the words Nastasia said to her. Why did Dimentio do that?

_I truly don’t know, dear diary. He cleared my name. If not for him I would have been put in prison, or worse, maybe. What he did was horrible. He used me and I’d wish for him to die, if he hadn’t died already. Died in an attempt to clear my name. I’d give many things to ask him why he did that. If I knew that, maybe I wouldn’t feel horrible now. He’s gone, like I wished he was_ [1] _. I still despise him for what he did. A part of me does. I can’t help but ask myself. Was what he was saying true? I... guess I’ll never know._

_Yours, Mimikins_

With that, the diary entry ended. Mercy rapidly flipped the page, but the rest was blank.

“I-is this the end?”

“Yes, the end of Mimi’s diary. Did you like the journey through Mimi’s personal thoughts? It’s such a roller-coaster for me as well each time, although I much preferred it the first time. The novelty of it wears off quickly, even if I have to say the second time around I noticed all the little details a lot better. I suggest you read it again as well. You as well.”

Mercy decided to ignore Dimentio’s last phrase.

“But it doesn’t make sense! You are not dead! And the Pure Hearts should have been depleted, but my mom has them!”

“Aha ha ha. Little, foolish one. I told you that the voyage into Mimi’s memories has ended. Not that the story has.”

“You mean...”

“Yes. Tomorrow I’ll tell you the glamorous ending to all of this! Directly from my point of view, with a little of it coming from what your mother told me what happened! So, stay tuned and be ready to hear the epic conclusion! What will reveal what happened six years ago! Or, as I like to call it… The Ballad of the Spider and the Jester.”

Heh?

**Author's Note:**

> I’m tired of waiting for new Dimimi content  
> As a wise man said once “Fine. I’ll do it myself”


End file.
